From:
"Chris Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I have just installed a Seagate STD28000N (aka ARCHIVE Python
04687-XXX Rev: 6580 according to dmesg).
I only had 90m tapes to hand and wanted to try it out, tar cvf on a
handful of files claimed to work but nothing else did generally
returning error messages about sequential position.
I am off to get some 120m tapes and have been through the man
pages etc. for dds2tar, dds2index etc. but feel a bit out of my depth
here. Is there a really simple idiots' guide to using DDS/DAT tape
drives, something like the wonderfully clear HOWTO for jaztool?
TIA
Chris
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Reply:
I have a similar dat drive. It is an IBM DDS2 made by Archive (later
Conner, now Seagate). I have used both 90 and 120 mm tapes without
any problems. There are two device signatures for these /dev/stX and
/dev/nstX where the /dev/nst devices do not rewind the tape before or
after use. There are commands that control the tape movement (mt I
belive) to forward or back space past records, and to the logical end
of the tape. This lets you put several 'tar' images on a single tape
and postion the tape to write the next, or read a desired one. But
you have to do this manually, keeping track of the number of tar
images on the tape. This drive is really slow, backing up my system
(over 1GB at the momment) takes the better part of an hour (or so it
seems). Still the cost of storage was right. (I lucked out, I got
the tape drive for $10 US and a box of 2 dozen tapes for another $10
US ... is that about 14 pounds UK? And the cost/GB of this medium for
new tapes is much better than travan tapes) So I'll live with the slow
speed. Can always just sked the backup with at, shove a tape in the
drive and go to bed.
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