Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!convex!egsner!uublip!blip
From: blip@uublip.uucp (Brant Pellett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: mkfs /dev/floppy-tape ; mount /dev/floppy-tape /mnt
Keywords: mount floppy tape with file system
Message-ID: <1991May29.165557.5351@uublip.uucp>
Date: 29 May 91 16:55:57 GMT
Followup-To: uunet!egsner!uublip!blip
Organization: Brant Pellett, Personal Machine
Lines: 77

I have an AT&T 3b1 running 3.51m with in internal 320K FD and an external
floppy tape (looks like streamer, but it's not...)

I'm trying to format my FLOPPY TAPE so I can mount it as a (dreadfully slow)
second drive.  Is this fultile?  Has anyone ever done it?  How slow does it
get?

I'm wanting to do this because I'm strapped financially, yet don't have enough
disk space to get -news-.

Here's what I've tried so far:

------------------------demo starts here-----------------------------
$ ls -l /dev/*ft*
crw-r--r--  1 root    root      9,  0 Feb 18 15:34 /dev/rft0
crw-r--r--  1 root    root      9,  3 Apr 30 13:32 /dev/rft3
$ /etc/mkfs /dev/rft3
mkfs: slice 3 not initialized
$ iv -uv /dev/rft3
iv: description file needed.
$ cd /usr/lib/iv
$ iv -uv /dev/rft3 FT0
iv: /dev/rft3 is not slice 0 of a raw device
$ iv -uv /dev/rft0 FT0

/dev/rft0
Device Type: FD	  Name: Archive	
Cylinders: 7  Heads: 1  Sectors: 256

** Phase 1 - Initializing Internal VHB.
iv: Invalid VHB, disk must be formatted.
$ iv -iv /dev/rft0 FT0

/dev/rft0
Device Type: FD	  Name: Archive	
Cylinders: 7  Heads: 1  Sectors: 256

** Phase 1 - Initializing Internal VHB.
iv: cannot set  3145523isk description.
: Invalid argument
$ /etc/mkfs /dev/rft0
mkfs: cannot mkfs on slice 0
$ cat FT0
#sccs   "@(#)iv/lib:FT000	1.1
#	iv description file for 48 TPI Floppy file system tape.
# iv requires even number of sectors / track
type		FD
name		Archive
cylinders	7
heads           1
sectors         256
steprate	0
exchangeable
$
$
$
0
1
2
$
$
------------------------demo stops here-----------------------------

Any ideas?  If so, I'd appreciate e-mail as there's no guarantee I'll receive
any particular article.


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   B   B  L        I    P               P.O. Box 7396
   BBBB   LLLLL  IIIII  P               Long Beach, CA 90807-0396
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   BBBB   L      IIIII  PPPP            egsner!uublip!blip
   B   B  L        I    P   P           Brant Pellett
uu BBBB   L        I    PPPP            213-422-1808
   B   B  L        I    P               P.O. Box 7396