From: James L. Paul (james@netcom.com)
Date: 06/07/92 

From: james@netcom.com (James L. Paul)
Subject: Colorado tape drives. Compatibility?
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 1992 02:41:18 GMT

I've been considering a tape drive for basic backups. The cheapest units
I'm aware of are the Colorado 120 and 250 MB units. I'm not sure what the
interface for these things are, but saw it implied in one ad that they
use a floppy controller.

I have an IDE 2FD/2HD controller, with one floppy connector available.
Assuming I can connect one of these tape drives to the avilable floppy
connector, what /dev driver would I use? (What are the major/minor
numbers, and is it a block device or what?)

Is the floppy connector the preferred interface?

BTW, new to DOS/clone hardware, is there a problem with using more than
one IDE controller board? Is there anything special I have to do to get
Linux to work with more than one controller?

Since the current filesystem size is limited to 64MB, is there a
advantage to getting a 120 MB tape instead of a 250 MB? Can I put more
that one tar to the tape from Linux? Basically, I'd like to hear any
tips or caveats regarding using these cheap tape drives with Linux. 

-- 
James L. Paul

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