[rescue] VS80 DLT tape drive question

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>
>
> I think that my door has worn out or broken where the slot you mention is.
> I can see what possibly looked like a place where the spring would have
> engaged... but it isn't possible any longer.  My VHS hub lock mechanism
> spring works nicely though.
>
> However, now I can't get by a problem where I can't write to tapes (I can
> read).  It thinks every tape is write protected.
>
> Going to check out that area of the drive now...
>
> Anyone ever see that problem in a VS80 before ?  Wondering if that is
> how the drive got 'retired'.... and ended up getting to me (since I'm
> two people down the chain from where the equipment originated, I
> don't know the history... but the Optiplex GX260 and two Optiplex GX400
> systems both worked fine, so I had high hopes for the tape drive (although
> I suppose in my tear down/reassembly I could have messed up something
> (maybe the small ribbon isn't seated right ?)
>   

Answering my own question now....

The issue was VS80s (and probably DLT8000s) if they detect DLT4000
formatted media go into 'write protect mode'.  Tapes need to be bulk erased.
I have a bulk eraser (Radio Shack), but haven't tried it yet.  Trying a 
brand
new DLT IV tape (I had only one), and I'm writing a backup to it now.

It is not streaming well.... so not sure what I'd need to tweak (just using
tar now under Linux).  I also only have it connected up to an Adaptec
2940U ... I would have though this drive does ultra... but dmesg seems to
indicate it running at 10.0 MB/s.  Although I'd think that should be fine
as it only backs up 3-6MB/sec (3 non compressed, 6 compressed at 2:1).

It is the only device on the controller... so I think it should be fine...

Anyone have any success in tweaking parameters via mt/tar/etc to get them
to stream well ?

I'll probably end up using Bacula, but for now, I'm using tar.

-- Curt

> -- Curt
>
>
> -- Curt
>
>   
>>     -Dan Sikorski
>> _______________________________________________
>> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue