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Date:      Sat, 4 Nov 1995 11:58:32 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Brann <jbrann@panix.com>
To:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Nasty SCSI tape problem
Message-ID:  <199511041658.LAA15426@panix3.panix.com>

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Hi,

I have a Conner CTMS tape drive.  This is a SCSI device which uses high density
QIC-type cartridges which hold 1.6 or 2Gb.  I have an Adaptec 2940/PCI SCSI
controller which runs the hard disk, tape and CDROM.  The system has no IDE.
I'm running 951020-SNAP.

I'd like to use 'dump' to make backups, so I was experimenting with it, but
having problems persuading it to store my 700Mb /usr partition on only one 
tape.  For some reason the calculations of number of blocks / blocksize 
don't seem sensible.  Anyway, after 'dump' told me how many tapes I was 
going to need, I hit CTRL-C to abort.  At this point the disk light came on
and the whole system gradually froze until it totally stopped.  Using the
reset button started up the usual BIOS boot cycle - but before the point at 
which the BIOS tells me that the disk drive is drive C: and proceeds to boot 
from it, the system hung up - the disk light flickered intermittently, but 
nothing else happened.  After about 2 minutes I powered the system down, said
a short prayer, and switched it on again.  Everything came up without trouble.

I should add that 'tar' works fine, easily storing the /usr partition on a 
single tape.

I know this fits into the 'Doctor, it hurts when I do this... well don't do
that then' category of problems, but I would really like to know what's
going on here.

Any ideas?

John
-- 

  "I don't know what I want, but I want it now!"
                                          Sir Henry Rawlinson.
John Brann  --  jbrann@panix.com  jbrann@newparadigm.com



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