Summary#2: Can one move past the logical EOT on an 8mm tape?

From: Gerald Justice (justice@dao.nrc.ca)
Date: Sat Jul 10 1993 - 00:49:43 CDT


My summary of two weeks ago needs revision due to an important message
received after the first summary and because my Canadian english ear
badly mangled the name of someone that phoned in their contribution.
Please refer to that summary for the original question and summary of
earlier responses (since no-one replaces summaries from the archive it
doesn't make sense to repeat everything here).

The summary really doesn't change except to say that some drives may
be configured to allow skipping past LEOT. Early 8200's are very likely
to be configured this way, other models and late 8200's are very likely
to not be configured this way and there exists a mechanism for configuring
the drives which requires software from Exabyte, a PC, and a special cable.
(See below.) I am not going to pursue this as I said in my earlier summary
there is less value to the data than I had thought, but I may have an
excellent opportunity to test the power-off method during an upcoming major
reconfiguration of the system with the 8500 on it. I will certainly send
Summary #3 if in fact I do this.

Thanks to:

hoogs@alc.com (Tim Hoogasian) <-- incorrectly reported in previous summary
trinkle@cs.purdue.edu (Daniel Trinkle)

Additional response:

>Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 13:44:15 -0500
>From: trinkle@cs.purdue.edu (Daniel Trinkle)
>
> I don't recall seeing your original note, or I probably would
>have replied (or maybe it was just a busy day).
>
> What you want is possible with all the 8200, 8500 and 8500C units
>I have seen. The catch is that it is necessary to configure the drive
>to allow it. This is not possible without some additional Exabyte
>diagnostic software. We happen to have access to that software
>(someone on campus has done a lot of beta test work for Exabyte).
>With the software running on a PC, it is trivial to change the
>parameters of the drive to allow "index files" on the tapes. You
>might try asking Exabyte support if they will give/sell you the CTSMON
>software. After getting this, you need a cable that connects the
>diagnostic port on the Exabyte (set of four pins close to the SCSI
>connector on the drive) to the COM1 (or any serial port) on your PC.
>
> The 8200 units came with the "index file" feature enabled by
>default. Later drives did not.
>
>Daniel Trinkle trinkle@cs.purdue.edu
>Dept. of Computer Sciences {backbone}!purdue!trinkle
>Purdue University 317-494-7844
>West Lafayette, IN 47907-1398



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