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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!mcsun!news.forth.gr!news.forth.gr!vp From: vp@nemesis.csi.forth.gr (Vassilis Prevelakis) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: Does a Tape Filesystem exists? Date: 11 Nov 1993 22:29:24 +0200 Organization: Institute of Computer Science, FORTH Hellas Lines: 35 Message-ID: <vp.753049061@news.forth.gr> References: <CFzsro.11J@cc.umontreal.ca> <CG0st1.6Hw@flatlin.ka.sub.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: nemesis.csi.forth.gr bad@flatlin.ka.sub.org (Christoph Badura) writes: >In <CFzsro.11J@cc.umontreal.ca> surprenc@beryl (Leclerc Marco) writes: >>I was wondering if a tape filesystem exists anywhere? >>(so we could mount/umount a tape). >You don't need a tape filesystem, you need a block device driver for >the tape. FFS does just fine on a tape. In theory, however most modern tape drives (most is not all QIC standard tape drives) do not support rewrites. I am not sure but I think exabytes do not support rewrites either (I don't have clue about DAT). This leaves only old 1/2" reel to reel tapes. I know that the 1/2" tape drives could in principle support filesystems but they were SLOOOOW!!!. I tried once to make a filesystem on a 1/2" under SunOs (3 or smth) and it didn't work. I forget why and anyway I wasn't desperate to get it to work -- I just did it on an impulse (should have tried warp :-). So my advice is to forget it, its not worth it and will cause a lot of wear on both the tape and the drive. It is guarrantied to look impressive though like the "computers" in old movies (of the 60s and 70s). **vp ----------------------------------- Vassilis Prevelakis | vp@csi.forth.gr Thoukididou 10A | old style address: Plaka, Athens 105 58 | ...!mcvax!ariadne!vp GREECE | Tel. +30 1 32 32 867 | FAX +30 1 72 24 603