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Re: HP 7980s reel tape drive

 
CA461019
New Member

HP 7980s reel tape drive

I am writing an app to interface with the HP 7980s from HP-UX 10.20. I am attempting to use the mt UNIX command to navigate the tape (fsf and bsf), and the drive is responding properly to these commands.

The (major) problem is: it seems the drive is on some sort of "auto-rewind" setting, where it will automatically rewind if idle for a few seconds after an mt or dd command.

This poses a real problem for my program. Because of the behavior of the 7980s, when, for example, I issue an mt rew (rewind) command, I will receive my prompt back a few seconds before the drive is actually done seeking for BOT.

So, what I've done is have my program pause for a few seconds after issuing any command to give the drive time to finish "clicking back and forth".

Problem is, many times the drive will start to rewind on its own during this short pause.

In summary, is there some way I can turn off this "auto-rewind" feature, or whatever is causing this? Also (naturally), I'd be very interesting in securing the manual for the drive, or some sort of online resource detailing the settings for the drive.

Thanks so much!
Alan
1 REPLY 1
Orhan_1
New Member

Re: HP 7980s reel tape drive

Dear Alan, I am not expertise on the area, but lately, I achieved the writing/reading data to hp7974A magnetic tape reader via GPIB interface. MY problem is HP7974A products supports 1600 PE density, but I want to write data on a tape with 800 NRZI density. Unfortunatly, our magnetic tape does not support 800 NRZI density setting. Does it support your magnetic tape Reader?
Thank You.