Re: Colorado Parallel port tape
Nathan E Norman wrote:
>
> Take the case apart - there's an internal tape drive, power
> supply, and floppy controller in the case. Remove the internal drive
> and install it in your system ... viola! A usable tape drive.
I knew that the Trakker had a Jumbo inside, but I didn't know this
was possible! I'll have to try it someday.
> This isn't what you wanted? Well, that's life in the world of MS
> specific hardware.
No, you can't blame this one on MS.
> Actually, the reason you can't use the external is because of that
> floppy interface in the case ... the parallel port serves as a link to
> that interface. I don't know if it uses a proprietary protocol or if
> it's just a bear to implement, but no-one's done it under Linux that I
> know of.
There's an ASIC in the case that has a proprietary interface.
A few years ago I finally tracked down somebody at HP that
knew what the situation was. They had me sign a non-disclosure agreement
and sent me the doc showing how to program the interface.
I had planned to try to cannibalize the ftape driver to make it work
but never got around to it. I couldn't give it to anybody if I had,
though.
Now, with my 6.5GB of disk to back up, the 125MB (uncompressed) tape
capacity is pretty useless anyway. :-(
Still, I might try installing it internally as you suggested.
--
...RickM...
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