Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!RICHTER.MIT.EDU!krowitz From: krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: More on 8mm tape drives ... Message-ID: <8904052137.AA09294@richter.mit.edu> Date: 5 Apr 89 21:37:20 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 24 I've been talking to a Sun user who has an Exabyte tape drive hooked up to his system. He tells me that due to differences in the SCSI controllers and drivers used by the various vendors who offer the drive on Sun systems, tapes written on one system are not necessarily readable on another system. Various things such as maximum blocking factors, short vs. long file marks, etc. have been mentioned on the Sun users mailing list (ie. Sunspots) as causes of incompatible tapes. Has anyone tried swapping tapes with the various Apollo vendors of the Exabyte drive? Will a wbak (or tar) tape written on a drive from Danford be readable on a drive from Workstation Solutions? If anyone who has the Danford drive and would like to try swapping tapes for a test, let me know (I've got a drive from Workstation Solutions which I am about to purchase). -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter@athena.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)