Question on QIC-150 tape usage

[Dave Olson]

In <9009181533.AA10354 at ki> dwatts at ki.UUCP (Dan Watts) writes:
| In article <9009120004.aa24283 at SPARK.BRL.MIL> you write:
| >There are QIC numbers that refer to many things, not just the recording
| >format, but also the interfaces, read/write heads, ECC and Data Compression
| >standards, etc.  Don't worry about QIC-02 for example, it is an interface
| >standard.
| >
| >The major recording formats you will see now are:
| >
| >Recording Format     Cartridge Type    Capacity    Read Compatibility
| >QIC-24                 DC600A            60MB
| >QIC-120                DC6150           125MB        QIC-24
| >QIC-150                DC6150           150MB        QIC-120/QIC-24
| > (or a longer tape)    DC6250           250MB
| > ... stuff deleted ...
| >- Phil
| 
| Re: the DC6250 mentioned above.  Is there any truth to the warning that
| comes printed on the 3M blurb sheet for that tape size?  It says that
| use of extended length tapes may cause a change in the head wear
| pattern that may reduce headlife, especially when using both standard
| and extended tapes.  Will this really happen to my SGI tape drive??
| 

We haven't done testing with these tapes, but if 3M is warning you about it,
I WOULD be inclined to worry about it.

If you really want to know, contact your local Archive distributor, and
see what they can tell you about it.  It may be that 3M issues the warning
only because rare problems occur with some types of, or some mfg's drives.
The Archive model # for the QIC-150 drives that SGI ships is "Viper 2150S".
--

	Dave Olson

Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.