Date   : Sun, 02 Oct 2005 12:04:15 +0100
From   : Phil Blundell <philb@...>
Subject: Re: MDFS Tapes

On Sun, 2005-10-02 at 11:13 +0100, Ian Wolstenholme wrote:
> I have another tape drive which will fit the tapes but it has a 34-way
> connection like a 5.25" drive and not a SCSI connector.  Can this be
> converted for use with the MDFS?

Probably not, or at least not easily.  This sounds like a "floppy tape"
drive: i.e. a low-cost tape drive that connects to a floppy disk
controller and has virtually no onboard intelligence of its own.  These
were quite popular for a while in the early 1990s.

The MDFS needs a drive that responds to the SCSI direct-access command
set (i.e. the same as a hard disk).  Most SCSI tapes are
sequential-access devices and will not work.

Of course, it would be possible to construct an interface unit that
appeared to the MDFS as a direct-access device, and translated those
commands into the appropriate thing for any tape drive you cared to use.
But this would be a relatively complex device.

If you're just looking for a way to back up your MDFS, rather than an
authentic tape arrangement, it's possible that an extra hard disk
configured at ID 4 would look similar enough to a tape that the MDFS
would be happy with it.  Or, of course, you could back up your files
over the network, though I guess that might be unfeasibly slow.

p.