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To: steve2@genesis.tiac.net (Steve Gerakines)
cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: Colorado Tape Drive (floppy tape) 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 22 Apr 1995 14:36:56 EDT."
             <199504221836.OAA01099@genesis.tiac.net> 
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 01:10:15 -0700
From: "Mike O'Brien" <obrien@leonardo.net>
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
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	Just a note of info about Colorado tape drives.  While talking
with the Colorado Memory Systems rep this morning to get a return
authorization number for my drive (motor failure), he mentioned some
interesting things.

	I was trying to get him to send me hardware info on the drive,
since he remarked that treating a 350 like a 250 will get you a 250's
worth of data on the tape.  He said he couldn't do that but that whoever
was handling the Linux driver could get any info we needed.  Humbling,
but possibly useful.  Apparently some new stuff in the driver would be
useful to get everything a 350 can do.  I just looked at the driver;
perhaps an entry in the geometry table would do it but of course I
really don't know.

	Also, when I told him the little light was blinking in bursts
of four (which he said indicates motor failure), the first question out
of his mouth was, "Do you have the drive mounted immediately above a
CD-ROM drive?"  It turns out that's exactly what the integrator who
built my machine did.  He says that has a tendency to cook Colorado
drives due to heat, and recommended that I swap the mountings around so
that a floppy drive intervenes between the CD-ROM and the Colorado
tape drive.

	Hope this info is some use.

Mike O'Brien