From owner-freebsd-questions  Sun Apr 13 04:20:37 1997
Return-Path: <owner-questions>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id EAA29081
          for questions-outgoing; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 04:20:37 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from tulpi.interconnect.com.au (root@tulpi.interconnect.com.au [192.189.54.18])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id EAA29047
          for <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 04:20:28 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from solsbury-hill.home (acc3-ppp49.mel.interconnect.com.au [210.8.0.49]) by tulpi.interconnect.com.au with ESMTP id VAA24335
  (8.7.6/IDA-1.6); Sun, 13 Apr 1997 21:20:01 +1000 (EST)
Received: from solsbury-hill.home (localhost.home [127.0.0.1]) by solsbury-hill.home (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id UAA09399; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 20:59:36 +1000 (EST)
Message-Id: <199704131059.UAA09399@solsbury-hill.home>
X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0beta 12/23/96
From: Joel Sutton <suttonj@interconnect.com.au>
To: Mike Berry <berrym@seas.upenn.edu>
cc: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Floppy/Parallel tape drive with FreeBSD? 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 04 Apr 1997 21:47:20 PST."
             <Pine.BSF.3.96.970404214319.2591S-100000@localhost> 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 20:59:35 +1000
Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Mike

> On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Mike Berry wrote:
> > Hence, I want to buy one of the cheap FLOPPY or PARALLEL
> > interface drives.  Is it possible to use one of these drives?
> 
> Well, I can't guarantee it'll work, but there is a new improved floppy
> tape driver.  The original only supported QIC-40 & QIC-80. You can try the
> 'lft' driver, available at
> ftp://freefall.freebsd.org/pub/incoming/lft.tgz.  

I use a Colorado Jumbo 350 tape drive which takes QIC-80 tapes. I use 
the 170MB tapes and I haven't had any problems so far. I have also 
read reports of the Jumbo 250 working without modifications to the 
kernel. The lft program is a "must have" if you're going with a 
QIC-80 drive. 

> NO GUARANTEES THIS WILL WORK WITH YOUR TAPE!  They are highly propietary.
> SCSI tapes are the way to go, if possible.

I have to agree with Doug here but, on the other side, I do know how 
you feel about the cost. Cost made my decision for me - it was either 
QIC-80 or floppy disks ;->. It's worth thinking about because the QIC-80 
tapes are much more expensive than 4mm or 8mm DAT tapes, which can 
store gigabytes. 

If reliability/security is an issue then SCSI is the way to go. 

If you end up with a Jumbo 350, send me an email and I will forward you 
the patch to get it going with the 170MB tapes. 

Good luck. I hope this helps. Cheers, Joel...