Xref: utzoo comp.sys.att:2173 unix-pc.general:194
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!uunet!ukma!nrl-cmf!ames!sdcsvax!nosc!humu!uhmanoa!aloha1!islenet!richard
From: richard@islenet.UUCP (Richard Foulk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: Upgrading the Floppy Drive in a UNIX-PC
Keywords: floppy 3b1 7300 Unix-PC
Message-ID: <3811@islenet.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jan 88 01:51:25 GMT
References: <696@mstar.UUCP> <3787@islenet.UUCP> <955@neoucom.UUCP>
Reply-To: richard@islenet.UUCP (Richard Foulk)
Organization: Islenet Inc.,  Honolulu
Lines: 44

> I bought a QIC-40 format 40 meg tape drive for my PC/AT compatible
> machine.  It has an electrical interface that is the same as a
> standard 5-1/4" disk drive.  From a local vendor, the tape drive
> and PC driver software cost $350.  The tape drive is made by a
> company called Archive.  The tapes are DC-2000 mini cassettes.  I
> found a place in Computer Shopper that sells the cassettes for $16.75.
> All in all , it is a very effective backup medium.

Sounds great!  Do you have the model number of the drive?

> It would be sort of neat to replace the floppy drive in a 3b1 with
> a tape drive.  The difficult part would be sriting the driver to
> control the tape unit.  It opens up a lot of possibilities, as
> software could be distributed on tape.  Any volunteers to write the
> driver?

It may not be all that difficult to write a driver.  I vaguely remember
that that drive was dealt with on a sector by sector basis just like
a floppy -- which would make sense if it uses a floppy interface.

So assuming the current floppy driver doesn't have too small a
limit on the possible sector or track count then it may not be
necessary to write a new driver at all!  This also assumes that
the tape drive addresses sectors and tracks in the usual sequential
order, as I think the floppy driver does now.  If these assumptions
are correct then you may be able to use tar, cpio and friends with
the existing driver.

Don't forget the 3B1 floppy driver is configurable as to sector and
track count via a text file (at least that's the way I remember it).
I'll have to dig into my comp.sys.att archives to find the info again.

At that price I'm real tempted to experiment a bit.  I almost bought
the tape drive from AT&T but it seemed like such a ripoff, and much
too small.

If anyone sees anything wrong or misguided about what I've said here
please chime in and point it out.

Thanks.

-- 
Richard Foulk		...{dual,vortex,ihnp4}!islenet!richard
Honolulu, Hawaii