Again on the topic of tape drives while the email problem is worked on by
elves.  At one Lug meeting long ago we saw a SCSI tape drive operated using
command switches to the program Tar (Tape Archive).  That is control at it's
simplest form.  

You might try some other free programs available at www.freshmeat.net or
tucows.com to control your drive.  It might be that BRU doesn't work with
IDE drives.  For old floppy controlled tape drives there is a program called
ftape that I would like to try.  Now where is that old tape drive I had with
the 2120 tape.

At the end of the day the IDE drives were not recommeended to be used at
all, no matter which OS you have, the FDC drives work fine but slow and the
SCSI are best.  Don't even get anyone started on the DAT discussion.  See
the archives at the web site.

Later,
Brian