From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 19 18:37:49 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D2CE1065678 for ; Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:37:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: from gizmo.acns.msu.edu (gizmo.acns.msu.edu [35.8.1.43]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18E128FC24 for ; Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:37:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: from gizmo.acns.msu.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gizmo.acns.msu.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id n2JIXwFu068060; Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:33:58 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by gizmo.acns.msu.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6/Submit) id n2JIXwNo068059; Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:33:58 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jerrymc) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:33:58 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister To: Jaime Message-ID: <20090319183357.GA67767@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Formatting a tape? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:37:49 -0000 On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 12:15:48PM -0400, Jaime wrote: > I have a DLT tape drive in a FreeBSD system. With one of the tapes, I > can get "tar -cvpf /dev/sa0 -C / ." to work. With all the other > tapes, I can't. > > Is there some kind of formatting process that I need to do? I tried > "mt fsf 1" from this page: > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/backups-tapebackups.html > > This didn't seem to work, though. Tapes do not need to be formatted, though the issue mentioned in the page you indicate can cause problems. I have seen it a lot on DAT (DDS) tapes and never with a DLT. On the DAT tapes, the solutions given on that page have usually not helped for me. But, since I have never had any problem with DLT tapes, I can't say if they might be helpful. You can try writing a block or two to the drive using dd(1). That occasionally helped with the DAT (DDS) tapes. dd count=10 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/nsa0 Seems like it should have a bs=nn in there too, but I can't remember if the default of 512 is OK or not. ////jerry > > Any help is appreciated, > Jaime > > -- > "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." -- > Henry David Thoreau > > Tone of voice in email is misunderstood 50% of the time. > Source: http://www.howtoweb.com/cgi-bin/insider.pl?zone=214061 > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"