Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 13:52:05 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu> Cc: "Robert D. Keys" <bsdbob@seedlab1.cropsci.ncsu.edu>, FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: WangDat 3100 SCSI tape (cleaning always good) Message-ID: <19980813135205.G1147@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.00.9808122234290.371-100000@picnic.mat.net>; from Chuck Robey on Wed, Aug 12, 1998 at 10:37:03PM -0400 References: <19980813124140.B1147@freebie.lemis.com> <Pine.BSF.4.00.9808122234290.371-100000@picnic.mat.net>
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On Wednesday, 12 August 1998 at 22:37:03 -0400, Chuck Robey wrote: > > On Thu, 13 Aug 1998, Greg Lehey wrote: > >> On Wednesday, 12 August 1998 at 10:09:51 -0400, Robert D. Keys wrote: >>>> On Tuesday, 11 August 1998 at 0:13:30 -0400, Chuck Robey wrote: >>> In my experiences that probably points to a dirty tape drive head. >>> >>> I run a lot of different tape drives on my old junque, all ancient things, >>> and there are two problems that seem to surface that folks might pay >>> attention to. (speaking about older DC600, DC5160 type cartridge drives). >>> >>> 1. Clean the tape heads with a q-tip and some isopropyl alcohol, about >>> every 10 tape runs on tapes that are used. I find that errors start >>> to magically appear about that time, with regularity. >> >> I've tried this on DDS tapes, with very limited success. But you >> should run a cleaning tape about this often. More modern drives will >> remind you by blinking an LED if you forget. > > The drive I was talking about is some miles away from me, but I think > I'm gonna hop in the car and take some alcohol. I used to clean heads > with a (now ancient) reel-to-reel tape deck, and I feel comfortable with > that. I know those cleaning tapes are abrasive, and still sometimes > miss subborn specs. The only thing is, I haven't yet seen this unit, is > it helical scan? Man, cleaning the tape, then, is gonna be an > adventure. Yup, it's helical scan. I've never been successful with swabs and alcohol. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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