*BSD News Article 83092


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!hammer.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!Symiserver2.symantec.com!news
From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: QIC-120 and QIC-150
Date: 17 Nov 1996 19:43:19 GMT
Organization: Symantec Corp.
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <56npsn$b6o@Symiserver2.symantec.com>
References: <328d139e.0@finesse.isdn.uni-konstanz.de>
Reply-To: tedm@agora.rdrop.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: shiva1.central.com
X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.2.5

In <328d139e.0@finesse.isdn.uni-konstanz.de>, Pascal.Gienger@uni-konstanz.de (Pascal Gienger) writes:
>
>I have a question regarding QIC drives with FreeBSD 2.1.5.
>
>I have some Cartridges here with 120 MB (15 tracks) and 150 MB (18 tracks).
>Problem is, these cartidges are mixed up. So I is unusable for a backup,
>where a script always wants to use the same device name.....
>
>So what can be done to reformat QIC-120 to QIC-150? Must I degauss
>the tape completely? (If yes: How can it be done?)

These tapes don't need "reformatting" data is just written out onto them.

You can do a "mt erase" but all this does is rewind the tape and write
out an end-of-file mark.

About a year ago I wrote an article on backup that explains this, you might
find it in the archives on http://www.computerbits.com  If you cannot locate it
e-mail me.

Ted
tedm@agora.rdrop.com