Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!pa.dec.com!shodha.enet.dec.com!elvira!ridder
From: ridder@elvira.enet.dec.com (Hans Ridder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Problems with V6.6 A2091 ROMs
Message-ID: <3325@shodha.enet.dec.com>
Date: 8 Jun 91 20:01:52 GMT
Sender: news@shodha.enet.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Customer Support Center
Lines: 38

I got the new V6.6 A2091 ROMs a few weeks ago, and finally had a chance
to try doing a backup to tape.  I don't know what I could be doing
wrong, but the backup performance is worse than ever.  And yes, I did
re-enable reselect, first using the "ReselectOn" program, and then with
the HDToolbox.  Randell Jesup's "readrdsk" program even says reselect is
enabled.

Here's the whole story.  I have a 3 meg. A2000HD running 1.3, a 3M
MCD-40 tape drive, and am using BTNtape and tar for backups.

Using the old ROMs, with reselect enabled, the tape drive would keep
streaming most of the time.  The only time it stopped and backed up was
when there were lots of small files in a row.  This worked fine most of
the time, but it was fairly scary to do a restore with reselect enabled.
(The system would hang, leaving the hard disk corrupt.)  Turning off
reselect caused the tape drive to stop more often, almost doubling the
backup time.

Now, with the new ROMs, the disk drive access "feels" like reselect is
enabled.  But when doing a backup, the tape drive stops and backs up
after *each* block (larger block sizes just make it go longer between
stops, I could use alot of memory for buffers to get back the old
performance.)  I haven't completed a backup yet, but at this rate it
should be about 5-10 times slower than with the old ROM's and reselect
enabled.

From what I can tell, the new ROMs aren't using reselect to the tape
drive, where the old ROMs did.  This is just a guess at this point.  I
tried the V2.0 BTNtape, but no difference.  The real bugger is that my
old ROMs were already sent back to Commodore....

Any ideas?  Any help?  Randell, anyone?

-hans
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Hans-Gabriel Ridder			Digital Equipment Corporation
  ridder@elvira.enet.dec.com		Customer Support Center
  ...decwrl!elvira.enet!ridder		Colorado Springs, CO