Writing HP cartridge tapes on a Sun 3

[Tim Chase]

The HP systems (at least the 9000's) use preformatted tapes.  Putting
a regular (DC600A for example) tape in an HP's drive will cause it
to grind awhile and finally decide that the tape is no good.  Sometimes,
with the wrong kind of tape, the drive will get confused and wind the
tape off one of the spools.

The proper tapes for HP systems are 3M's DC600HC (600 feet) or the DC615HC
(150 feet).  Presumably the format on them would be destroyed instantly
by writing them on a "foreign" system.

In any case, I suspect it is impossible to either read or write an HP
compatible tape on a SUN, Apollo, or any other system that uses
unformatted tapes.


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