Interfacing the floppy tape drive?
Karl Swartz
kls at ditka.Chicago.COM
Fri Feb 22 07:39:42 AEST 1991
In article <1991Feb20.010206.15433 at sci.ccny.cuny.edu> jeffrey at sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Jeffrey L Bromberger) writes:
>I realize that the *real* QIC never materialized ...
That's not *quite* true. I have one on ditka, and it's my
understanding that several others exist amongst well-known UNIX PC
sites.
However, it's definitely not production work. The case for the drive
(which nicely matches the wedge shape of the machine itself) has an
AT&T Death Star on it but it looks like a piece of thin cardboard that
was cut from a brochure and glued onto the case. The board itself is
reasonably clean though lacking the back-plate and handle (which I
would very much like to add on if somebody can suggest where I might
get the parts).
The good part is that the thing works, which is really nice since
ditka has both a 150 MB Maxtor XT-2190 and the original 67 MB
MiniScribe 6085 (courtesy the ICUS upgrade -- thanks Lenny and Gil!).
Question one is whether the actual drive for the old 23 MB tape is
crippled in some way or whether it's just the controller. Could I
connect my new QIC-II controller to the old floppy tape drive? I'm
not a hardware guru but it seems I should be able to.
Question two ... I tried overwriting one of the old floppy-formatted
tapes in the new drive but it hung in the driver, requiring a reboot
to unjam things. This makes no sense to me -- the drive should just
blast anything in its path. Do I need to bulk-erase old tapes?
--
Karl Swartz |INet kls at ditka.chicago.com
1-408/223-1308 |UUCP {uunet,decwrl}!daver!ditka!kls
|Snail 1738 Deer Creek Ct., San Jose CA 95148
"It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw." (Calvin)
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