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lsiden
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 116
Location: Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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 Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 1:57 am Post subject: formatting a tape in a SCSI tape drive |
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I just installed a SCSI DDS tape drive. I think I have to format the tape, but I don't know how to do this. I looked up the "mt" utility, but it has no "format" command, unless it's "mt -f /dev/nst0 mkpartition 0", which fails and writes "/dev/nst0: invalid argument" to stderr. Am I doing something wrong, or is there another way?
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"In Heaven, if everyone is supposed to be happy, who cleans the toilets?"
--Jordan Siden, age 10 |
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dbergst
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
Posts: 88
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 2:44 am Post subject: Re: formatting a tape in a SCSI tape drive |
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| lsiden wrote: | | I just installed a SCSI DDS tape drive. I think I have to format the tape, but I don't know how to do this. I looked up the "mt" utility, but it has no "format" command, unless it's "mt -f /dev/nst0 mkpartition 0", which fails and writes "/dev/nst0: invalid argument" to stderr. Am I doing something wrong, or is there another way? |
If I am not mistaken, DDS data tapes are factory preformatted, since the calibration required for tape format reference marks require a higher precision than DDS drives can support. I'm not sure what do you want to do, is this for a backup program or do you just want to use the tapes with tar or cpio? If you are using tar or cpio, you should be able to write to the tapes directly without formatting them.
WIth regard to using mkpartition under the mt command, I'll have to defer to someone more knowledgeable in this area. |
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lsiden
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 116
Location: Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks. After more searching on Google, I determined that the problem is probably that my tape drive needs to be cleaned. I bought it sight unseen on eBay for around $20. I guess it didn't say "cleaned and ready for usage!" in the ad. 
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-ls
"In Heaven, if everyone is supposed to be happy, who cleans the toilets?"
--Jordan Siden, age 10 |
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dbergst
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
Posts: 88
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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| lsiden wrote: | | Thanks. After more searching on Google, I determined that the problem is probably that my tape drive needs to be cleaned. I bought it sight unseen on eBay for around $20. I guess it didn't say "cleaned and ready for usage!" in the ad. |
Cleaning the drive on a regular basis should help.
BTW, $20 - that's a sweet deal even for a used drive! |
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SMoo
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 140
Location: Leander, TX
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:36 am Post subject: |
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| # mt -f /dev/st0 erase |
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augury
l33t
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 722
Location: philadelphia
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:41 am Post subject: |
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| if you need a resized scsi drive geometry format it requires sformat. this is not in portage. |
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