ra81s

[rbbb.rice%rand-relay at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:  David.Chase <rbbb.rice at rand-relay>

Here is our experience with the ra81 fco:

It involves replacing the uda50 controller, 3 out of 4 boards in the
drive itself, and changing the pack's format.  The actual upgrade takes
little time, but formatting the pack takes about an hour and a half.
This is done using a new version of EVRLB (it introduces itself as
"experimental").  The FE said to take the old tapes and scratch them,
don't let them near the disk ever again, etc.

Also, if you care about the information on the pack, then you might
want to back it up first.  This took us about two hours using VMS
standalone backup with a Tu78 @ 6250 bpi.  It used a full 3 reels of
tape (this was the entire disk, because it was a physical backup).

If you are a unix site w/o access to vms backup, then I'm not real sure
what you do, but I don't think it will be fun.  If you have no tape
drive, then get one.  Our FE said that they had once tried using a pack
without reformatting it, and it had not worked at all.

David Chase, Rice University