Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!aurora!labrea!decwrl!decvax!ucbvax!LBL.GOV!nagy%warner.hepnet
From: nagy%warner.hepnet@LBL.GOV (Frank J. Nagy, VAX Wizard & Guru)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: RE: Tape inited wrong
Message-ID: <880119045014.20e00e0f@LBL.Gov>
Date: 19 Jan 88 12:50:14 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 24

> We have a TK70 tape which was 'init'd under RSTS/E on a PDP-11 (using a
> TK-50 drive).  The tape now refuses to 'initialize' under VMS, failing with
> the message "Software write protect"......
> How do we recover from this one?
     
I suspect you can't recover this tape.  The reason is that Digital says
the TK70 drive can *read* TK50 tapes but not write them; I suspect (can't
verify since we have no TK70s here) that if you inserted a TK50 tape into
a TK70 drive, the tape would be "software write protected".

As for you particular case, I'd guess that the RSTS system has made the
tape look like a TK50 to the TK70 drive so its treating it like a TK50
cartridge.  The only solution I can think of would be to bulk-erase the
cartridge *HOWEVER, WARNING, READ THIS FIRST* I seem to remember that
TK50s (and probably TK70s) are formatted at the factory and so bulk
erasing would destroy the tape (maybe another reader can clear up this
point).


= Frank J. Nagy   "VAX Guru & Wizard"
= Fermilab Research Division EED/Controls
= HEPNET: WARNER::NAGY (43198::NAGY) or FNAL::NAGY (43009::NAGY)
= BitNet: NAGY@FNAL
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