Xref: utzoo comp.sys.hp:1308 comp.unix.questions:10487 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!kong!iccdev!bill From: bill@iccdev.UUCP (Bill Gaines) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp,comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Pre-formatted tapes for HP drives Keywords: tape drive Message-ID: <433@iccdev.UUCP> Date: 3 Dec 88 22:57:14 GMT References: <274@istsists.ca> Reply-To: bill@iccdev.UUCP (Bill Gaines) Organization: Industrial Computer Corp., Atlanta Lines: 33 In article <274@istsists.ca> mathieu@ists.yorku.ca (Pierre Mathieu) writes: > > Here are a couple of questions about HP tape drives. >We have an HP 9000 series 350 system running HP-UX 6.2 >with an HP 9144A tape drive. > >Question 1) Is it possible to load tapes into this drive that > are not pre-formatted and format them from HP-UX? > I have tried to use (non-HP) unformatted tapes > in this drive but it just went into spasms and locked > up totally refusing to use these tapes (which are > in every way identical to HP's except that they are not > pre-formatted). > Yes it is. We never buy the tapes from HP. We buy 3M DC615HC and DC600HC tapes and certify them ourselves. I haven't tried it on a 300 series, but our 800 series has a program called "mediainit" that will certify these tapes that have not been certified. Buy doing it ourselves, it saves us about $15 per tape we buy. If you don't run mediainit on these tapes, you will not be able to use them. We buy ours from a place called COMTEL. I don't have their phone number or address handy. By the way, if you have an HP 1000, you can use the "formc" program to certify them on it. -- Bill Gaines Industrial Computer Corporation (...!gatech!iccdev!bill)