I'm sending this message so that it will go in the archives to
help others who may have questions similar to Dave and mine.
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 19:24:09 -0700
From: Dave Close <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
After I wrote to you, I found several on-line references which helped
clarify things a bit. Although one of them repeated that idea that
the drive would "automatically" step to subsequent tapes, the others
were in agreement on a different interpretation. Some of these docs
were software manuals from companies which list the drive as one of
the ones they support, so I'm guessing they know.
The consensus seems to be that the drive goes into "sequential" mode
when you manually select a slot. It stays in that mode until you send
any SCSI command except UNLOAD or reach the end of the cartridge. You
can start with any slot, not just #1. Moving to the next slot requires
the software to send an UNLOAD command; it is not fully automatic. When
the drive gets UNLOAD while in sequential mode, it both unloads the
current tape and loads the one from the next slot. Loading the next
one could be construed as "automatic", since you didn't explicitly ask
for that, and may be the source of the confusion in the documentation.
As I read this, the drive does not behave as if the tapes were four or
more times their actual size. The software must be aware when the end
of a tape is reached and take some action to load the next tape. So
Seagate is deliberately or incompetently misleading us.
If this agrees with your observations, feel free to relay my comments
to the discussion group (of which I am not a member).
--
Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree,
is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals.
We cause accidents. -- Nathaniel Borenstein
