(Ted Harding) wrote:
>
> On 25-May-98 Will Lowe wrote:
> > I've got an internal colorado tape drive with a big "250 MG" label
> > embossed on the outside that came in an old 486 I bought secondhand from
> > someone. It sits on the normal IDE controller like a hard disk, and the
> > tapes I've been provided for it are labelled "DC 2120 Mini Data Cartridge
> > Tape" ... any idea what driver I'd go about using for it? I don't have
> > the original docs, so I don't know what the drive is called.
>
> "It sits on the normal IDE controller like a hard disk" -- Check (= carefully
> trace!) the cable connector between the tape drive and the IDE controller
> card.
> It's possible it may in fact be connected to a floppy port, in which case I'd
> suggest giving ftape and mt-st a try.
>
> (The DC2120 Minis are the cartridges that worked with the original Colorado
> Jumbo 250 which has a "250" above "MB" label embossed on it, in white on a
> beige background, bottom left-hand corner as you look at the fron panel; it
> seems quite possible you have the same. This drive *definitely* works off the
> floppy connector and in fact comes with a special cable which enables the tape
> drive and a floppy drive to share the same port on the card. The ftape/mt-st
> drivers work very well with the Colorado Jumbo 250.)
>
> One thing to note: unless ftape has moved on, you won't get compression when
> saving to the tape, so you would only get about 120MB onto the tape.
>
> Another thing: again unless ftape has moved on, you won't be able to format
> the
> tape on Linux. DC2120s come preformatted in QIC-80 format, and this seems
> fine,
> but if a tape gets corrupt it might need re-formatting before it can be used
> again. In that case, unless you have access to the Colorado DOS software
> you'll
> end up having to buy a new tape.
>
ftape has indeed 'moved on' (been improved). If ftape is what you need,
get ftape v3.04d. It now includes compression, and the ability to format
cartridges.
> [snip]
-
Ed
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