[daip] DDS tape drives

[Jim Ulvestad]

Hi gang,

Probably, I'm one of the few people who tries to do tape
backups, so nobody ever tells you which DDS drives are
working or not.

On ALCOR, the door doesn't even close on the DDS-3
drive; I think the tape doesn't mount securely.
If you try to use it, it makes bizarre noises,
but doesn't actually do anything.

On MIZAR, I have tried to read or write two different
tapes on the DDS-4 drive.  One that I wrote here
last month claimed to have parity errors.  The other,
I was able to write successfully, but then gave bogus
end-of-tape messages when I tried to read it
(multiple times each).  In the past, that's usually
been a symptom that the drive needs cleaning.

On the plus side for DAIP, FITAB with the CATNO
range is a great feature (assuming the drive works).
Enables substantial backups without having to pay
attention to what's happening.

Jim