DAT drives

[Bob Collins]

On Wed, Dec 24, 2003, Mike Maltese wrote:
> > Okay, probably a dumb question but I can't readily find an answer
> > in the archives..
> >
> > I just picked up a (used) surestore C1533A (thats an HP device) and am
> > having some problems getting it work quite right. I've got the dip
> switches
> > set correctly (I was able to find at least 3 corroborating pages for that)
> > but can't manage to get it to write correctly. It will only write about
> > 50 megs using 0a as dump flags. Trying to specify -B and estimating
> > compression got me to about 200 but it's a 4 gig drive. All it wants to
> > do is write a few blocks, sit and sputter for a second or two, write a few
> > more, (repeat for about 15 minutes) and then tell me it's at EOM well
> before
> > it should be.
> >
> > There are notes in the hardware compatability section that says this
> > drive has been made to work onder FreeBSD so I know at least that it's
> > not simply an unsupported device.
> >
> > Any suggestions from the folks in the audience?
> 
> This is a DDS2 SCSI drive, correct? I have a C1553A in an autoloader and it
> works flawlessly.
> 
> I would check the following:
> 
> 1. Since you're getting EOM, check that the tape is, in fact, rewound.
> 
> 2. Try a new tape.
> 
> 3. Run a cleaning tape.
> 
> 4. Ensure that the SCSI bus is correctly configured and terminated.
> 

I would add a second to the SCSI termination. I ran into an error with
my DDS-2 a few weeks back due to a failing or flaky terminator in the
tape drive. I had to add a true terminator to the SCSI cable.

I had many such troubles with tape errors EOM etc., until I checked the
termination. FWIW, I had read that the internal terminator on many older
SCSI devices are often flaky and touch and go.

Good Luck.

-- 
Bob