From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 24 03:27:17 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F36DE16A4CE for ; Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:27:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.covadmail.net (mx05.covadmail.net [63.65.120.65]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 63C2F43D1F for ; Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:27:15 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from strick@covad.net) Received: (covad.net 19161 invoked from network); 24 Dec 2003 11:27:09 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mist.nodomain) (68.164.174.144) by sun-qmail12 with SMTP; 24 Dec 2003 11:27:09 -0000 Received: from mist.nodomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mist.nodomain (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hBOBQwBb000831; Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:26:58 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan@mist.nodomain) Received: (from dan@localhost) by mist.nodomain (8.12.9p2/8.12.9/Submit) id hBOBQvvL000830; Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:26:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan) Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:26:57 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Strick Message-Id: <200312241126.hBOBQvvL000830@mist.nodomain> To: web@typo.org cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc: dan@mist.nodomain Subject: Re: DAT drives X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:27:17 -0000 On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, Wayne E. Bouchard wrote: >> > I just picked up a (used) surestore C1533A (thats an HP device) and am > having some problems getting it work quite right. I've got the dip switches > set correctly (I was able to find at least 3 corroborating pages for that) > but can't manage to get it to write correctly. It will only write about > 50 megs using 0a as dump flags. Trying to specify -B and estimating > compression got me to about 200 but it's a 4 gig drive. All it wants to > do is write a few blocks, sit and sputter for a second or two, write a few > more, (repeat for about 15 minutes) and then tell me it's at EOM well before > it should be. > > There are notes in the hardware compatability section that says this > drive has been made to work onder FreeBSD so I know at least that it's > not simply an unsupported device. > > Any suggestions from the folks in the audience? >> I have one of those drives (an HP C1533A) and it seems to work ok for me. I can't confidently identify your problem, but I can make a wild guess. Your symptoms could be caused by media problems. This is an especially common problem with used (i.e. worn down) drives. You might try cleaning your tape drive and using a new tape. (A slightly used tape might actually be better since using a tape may clean it a little bit.) One of the problems old drives is that the heads wear down and error rates go up. The nature of the recording technology requires such aggressive media error recovery that marginal operation may not be quite obvious. Sometimes it seems that the technology was designed to be frustrating. Dan Strick strick@covad.net