[PLUG] Stumped by tape driver errors...

[Michael C. Robinson]

On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 09:24, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Michael C. Robinson wrote:
> 
> > I'm trying to find out if my DI30 tape drive functions properly.
> 
>   Is this a Travan technology drive? I had all sorts of fits trying to get
> various drives and tapes to work consistently. The only person _I_ know who
> did so is one of the fellows at what is now The Tolis Group -- the folks who
> produce BRU. He told me it took their collective expertise to get it working
> reliably.
> 

It's not a Travan driven, it's an ADR drive made by Onstream.  It's
supposed to be fully Linux compatible but you have to apply a weird
patch to the ide tape driver.  It has problems being detected properly
for it's 32 kb block size.  Does Tandberg make anything in the $150
range that can do 30 gigs compressed?  What is the cartidge cost?  Maybe
I should wait for another loss leader on hard disks like the one that
Western Digital did at Fry's recently dumping 120's at $60 a pop 
and just build a raid box.  Four drives at those prices is comparable
to a single DI30 drive with a few tapes.  Long run you pay more, but on
the other hand it's a lot easier to get a hard drive to work than a
tape, especially when the tape drive manufacturer has financial trouble.
One downside of cheap hard drives is that they tend to burn out within
three years of use.

Maybe Bru will work properly with this tape drive.  I could try the
Windows software but I'm guessing one of the reasons it may work is
that it may not do error correction.

Maybe I should call the tape supplier, PC Mall, and see if they 
can sell me a drive that works with the verbatim media I bought.  
Maybe there's a bug in the drive  I have.

     --  Michael C. Robinson