*BSD News Article 67848


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From: stox@dcdkc.fnal.gov (Ken Stox)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Exybytes Tape Drive
Date: 6 May 1996 20:34:00 GMT
Organization: FERMILAB, Batavia, IL
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Message-ID: <4mlnno$knq@fnnews.fnal.gov>
References: <4mjqhg$6et@flood.xnet.com>
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In article <4mjqhg$6et@flood.xnet.com>,
	vchiu@quake.xnet.com writes:
>My question is :
>
>1. How can I make sure the tape drive is working? If any Unix command
>I can issue to check?

A simple cpio or tar to the device should be sufficient.

>2. I heard the tape must be preformatted before it can be used. If
>this is true how can I format the tape under FreeBSD?

No, this is for QIC-80 drives only, as far as I know.

>3. Do I need to rewind the tape when I every time "tar" the files to
>backup? Is the command "mt" to serve this?

Depends on what you want to accomplish, you could also simply use the
rewind device, ie. it automatically rewinds on close of the device.