Low capacity on Viper SCSI tape drives

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2 total messages Started by David Strout Sat, 05 Sep 1992 00:44

#625

Author: David Strout
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1992 00:44

14 lines
865 bytes

All--

I have an old Sun3 shoebox (external case w/ 312MB scsi drive and a
Viper SCSI tape unit) hooked to a color slab.  My thought had been to
use the tape for backup.  I run a little program to do a MTIOCFIXBLK
to set the block size on /dev/nrst0 to 512 bytes.  Then, when I do a
tar cvf - . > /dev/nrst0, I run out of tape after about 7.5 MB.  This
is with a DC6150 cartrige.  What else to I need to do to get the
per-tape capacity up to the 100-150MB range where it belongs?

Thanks,

dave.

Re: Low capacity on Viper SCSI tape drives

#636

Author: Dave Olson
Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1992 20:30

22 lines
1699 bytes

In <22341@venera.isi.edu> dstrout@isi.edu (David Strout) writes:
| I have an old Sun3 shoebox (external case w/ 312MB scsi drive and a
| Viper SCSI tape unit) hooked to a color slab.  My thought had been to
| use the tape for backup.  I run a little program to do a MTIOCFIXBLK
| to set the block size on /dev/nrst0 to 512 bytes.  Then, when I do a
| tar cvf - . > /dev/nrst0, I run out of tape after about 7.5 MB.  This
| is with a DC6150 cartrige.  What else to I need to do to get the
| per-tape capacity up to the 100-150MB range where it belongs?

More than likely you are getting a media error, rather than
'running out of tape'.  Chances are good that if the tape drive
is old, that it is QIC24 (60 Mbyte), not QIC150; should be
a stamping or label on the drive that identifies it as a
2150S (QIC150) or 2060S (QIC24).  If it is a QIC24, you
shouldn't use 6150 cartridges, you should use 600A, or the
300XL or 450XL cartridges; the coercivity of the tape is
different on the 6150 and 6250's, and won't work well on
the older drives.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com

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