From owner-freebsd-hardware Wed Nov 5 15:03:19 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id PAA16425 for hardware-outgoing; Wed, 5 Nov 1997 15:03:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hardware) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA16417 for ; Wed, 5 Nov 1997 15:03:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id JAA29540; Thu, 6 Nov 1997 09:32:44 +1030 (CST) Message-ID: <19971106093243.28994@lemis.com> Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 09:32:43 +1030 From: Greg Lehey To: Chris Stenton Cc: hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Seagate 24GB DAT drive References: <199711051005.KAA00479@hawk.gnome.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84e In-Reply-To: <199711051005.KAA00479@hawk.gnome.co.uk>; from Chris Stenton on Wed, Nov 05, 1997 at 10:05:52AM +0000 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, Nov 05, 1997 at 10:05:52AM +0000, Chris Stenton wrote: > > I have just got hold of a Seagate 24GB DAT drive and have come across an > interesting problem in that it works fine for blank tapes and can read tapes > produced on my old HP DAT but I can't write onto any of these old tapes. Even > mt erase does not work. It seems that if there is data on the tape it looks for > a special marker at the beginning of the tape; if it does not find it it gives > a > media error. Is this a problem with all Seagate DAT drives or just the 24GB > version? Depends on how old the tapes are. *Really* old DDS (not DAT) tapes didn't have MRS ("Media Recognition System"). By default, newer DDS drives will refuse to write to these tapes (and to DATs, which are for audio purposes only). I don't know what you mean by a "Seagate 24GB DAT" drive. Is this a DDS-3 drive? Check the manual, you'll probably find a way of disabling MRS. Greg