Hi the larger 9 track tape can hold a maximum of 170MB often much less as it depends on the block size and density used to write. It’s a great drive for testing commands and seeing how tape works. Unfortunately you can not see the modern LTO or enterprise tapes in action.
The condition of the tapes can cause problems, lucky we have a few that have aged well. The heads on the drive are easily cleaned as they are not thin film head so can be cleaned with a cloth and isopropyl. Also this drive has the interface with the 2mb cache buffer so generally do not get problems. The motors in the drive and other components tend to suffer more than the media. This is one of multiple drives we have and shelf full of spares.
Sorry John, it’s a mechanical keyboard and makes the loud key click every time a key press is registered. It makes the click no matter how gently the keys are pressed. It might be time for a different keyboard for use in the studio.
Hi Yuelong, the tape tape drive is connect to an adaptec scsi card, I think this drive in the video has a differential scsi interface most 9914 are single ended scsi. Normally with the adaptec scsi cards will allow you to access a bios with control A. You can scan the bus the hopefully see the drive. Also you will need a scsi terminator on the bus.
@@MerciaSolutions Thanks for your reply, I have connected it to my computer and scsi card see the drive, but the drive itself doesn't response any mt commands in linux, I think maybe I need an older scsi cards.
@@yuelonggong2637 run a dmesg command on the Linux machine and see if the SCSI card and drive is displayed in the kernel output, you should hopefully be able to see both and then can confirm the correct device name for use with the mt command. Hope this helps.
@@MerciaSolutions Thanks for the help, I found the problem is with the tape drive itself. After I reset the NVR values to default and then it works! And it brings another question, which tape density do you set in the demonstration video? 6250bpi or lower? seems my drive cannot write data with higher than 1600bpi, I tried 3200bpi and tar ended with an I/O error.
@Yuelong Gong our drive will works with all densities 800, 1600, 3200 and 6250. It might be worth running a self test on the 9914. it could also be a media problem?
Brings back bad workplace memories of the 1970s
😮 i heard these are making a comeback from the channel called half as interesting.😮
Here's something I've always wanted to ask about 9-track tapes... what does the recorded data signal sound like on these tapes?
wow. amazing operation witch the tape :o
Hi Gumer, here is a video of the tape being switched/loaded ruclips.net/video/bH2ggJ5fIvI/видео.html
I like how the drive shows what it is currently doing on the display. How much data can one of those tapes hold?
Hi the larger 9 track tape can hold a maximum of 170MB often much less as it depends on the block size and density used to write. It’s a great drive for testing commands and seeing how tape works. Unfortunately you can not see the modern LTO or enterprise tapes in action.
its very cool, i want to this tape at home))) and thanks for video, i don't know in past what i can tar file to the some device not a for file
Thank you. It’s great drive, especially for seeing what’s going on with commands as you can see the tape moving.
Do the tapes age well? Does the tape develop sufficient dropouts to cause them to become unreadable?
The condition of the tapes can cause problems, lucky we have a few that have aged well. The heads on the drive are easily cleaned as they are not thin film head so can be cleaned with a cloth and isopropyl. Also this drive has the interface with the 2mb cache buffer so generally do not get problems. The motors in the drive and other components tend to suffer more than the media. This is one of multiple drives we have and shelf full of spares.
I install my Steam games on those.
Why do you have to smash the keys like that? So annoying!
Sorry John, it’s a mechanical keyboard and makes the loud key click every time a key press is registered. It makes the click no matter how gently the keys are pressed. It might be time for a different keyboard for use in the studio.
I have a same tape drive too and when I have some problem to hooking into my machine. I wonder which SCSI controller that your guys using?
Hi Yuelong, the tape tape drive is connect to an adaptec scsi card, I think this drive in the video has a differential scsi interface most 9914 are single ended scsi. Normally with the adaptec scsi cards will allow you to access a bios with control A. You can scan the bus the hopefully see the drive. Also you will need a scsi terminator on the bus.
@@MerciaSolutions Thanks for your reply, I have connected it to my computer and scsi card see the drive, but the drive itself doesn't response any mt commands in linux, I think maybe I need an older scsi cards.
@@yuelonggong2637 run a dmesg command on the Linux machine and see if the SCSI card and drive is displayed in the kernel output, you should hopefully be able to see both and then can confirm the correct device name for use with the mt command. Hope this helps.
@@MerciaSolutions Thanks for the help, I found the problem is with the tape drive itself. After I reset the NVR values to default and then it works! And it brings another question, which tape density do you set in the demonstration video? 6250bpi or lower? seems my drive cannot write data with higher than 1600bpi, I tried 3200bpi and tar ended with an I/O error.
@Yuelong Gong our drive will works with all densities 800, 1600, 3200 and 6250. It might be worth running a self test on the 9914. it could also be a media problem?