On 25-May-98 Will Lowe wrote: > I've got an internal colorado tape drive with a big "250 MG" label > embossed on the outside that came in an old 486 I bought secondhand from > someone. It sits on the normal IDE controller like a hard disk, and the > tapes I've been provided for it are labelled "DC 2120 Mini Data Cartridge > Tape" ... any idea what driver I'd go about using for it? I don't have > the original docs, so I don't know what the drive is called.
"It sits on the normal IDE controller like a hard disk" -- Check (= carefully trace!) the cable connector between the tape drive and the IDE controller card. It's possible it may in fact be connected to a floppy port, in which case I'd suggest giving ftape and mt-st a try. (The DC2120 Minis are the cartridges that worked with the original Colorado Jumbo 250 which has a "250" above "MB" label embossed on it, in white on a beige background, bottom left-hand corner as you look at the fron panel; it seems quite possible you have the same. This drive *definitely* works off the floppy connector and in fact comes with a special cable which enables the tape drive and a floppy drive to share the same port on the card. The ftape/mt-st drivers work very well with the Colorado Jumbo 250.) One thing to note: unless ftape has moved on, you won't get compression when saving to the tape, so you would only get about 120MB onto the tape. Another thing: again unless ftape has moved on, you won't be able to format the tape on Linux. DC2120s come preformatted in QIC-80 format, and this seems fine, but if a tape gets corrupt it might need re-formatting before it can be used again. In that case, unless you have access to the Colorado DOS software you'll end up having to buy a new tape. By the way: I'd suggest sticking to standard-length DC2120 tapes (120MB), and not use the extra-length DC2120 XL (170MB). I have never persuaded the latter to work, but have never had trouble with the former (at any rate those manufactured by 3M). Best of luck, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 25-May-98 Time: 19:04:15 -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]