From: Andreas.Kaiser@f7014.n244.z2.stgt.sub.org (Andreas Kaiser)
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Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Where can I get SCSI tape backup software for MS-DOS?
Message-ID: <676248139.1@ananke.stgt.sub.org>
Date: 06 Jun 91  23:29:44 MET

 >I've been trying to find a way to back up my ISA bus computer to 
 >a SCSI tape drive and am having difficulty getting information on 
 >the necessary software.  The only product I have found is SY-TOS, but 
 >I can't find anyone except the manufacturer that sells it.

Since you will need a SCSI host adapter to connect to the drive, the host 
adapter's manufaturer should supply the requried Sytos version. I know of 
versions for WD7000 and AHD154x.

I bought the Sytos for AHA154x and the only backup method where both backup 
*and* restore were reliable was the physical disk backup, which does not allow 
selective restore. Both file and partition backups were unreliable - software 
trouble, the tape drive (Tandberg) is ok.

Since Adaptecs SCSI programming interface (ASPI) is undocumented and I was told

that the documentation is unavailable, I ended up in writing my own drivers for

the SCSI tape. The DOS version replaces the Adaptec ASPI4DOS disk driver. 
Later in OS/2 this approach was inapplicable due to the complexity of the disk 
driver, so I looked for a cheap Seagate ST01, fixed the builtin hardware bug and

wrote a tape driver for this host adapter. Now I use a ported version of GNU-Tar

both for DOS and OS/2 backups. An additional benefit is the ability to direcly 
position the tape to end-of-media and to selected files, the latter one using a

Tandberg-specific fast seek command (requires a maximum of 2 track scans).

                Gruss, Andreas

 
 
 
 

 * Origin: kaiser@ananke.stgt.sub.org - Stuttgart FRG (2:244/7014)