No, shorter tapes aren't a problem, but the opposite (putting a longer tape
in a drive designed for shorter ones) is.  It's probably just a bad tape, or
maybe a dirty drive.

>>> Therm-O-Link <[log in to unmask]> 02/05/98
02:35pm >>>
Everytime I think this new 918 is slicker than a greased pig,
along comes another little gotcha!  This time it's the DDS-2
tape drive.  We run a well-known payroll application on the
918 and the vendor of the package creates a reel-to-reel
tape file of our W2 information for the SSA.  We send the
vendor a DAT tape and they convert it (for a fee, of course!).

This year we created the tape on the DDS-2 tape drive (instead
of the old DDS(-1) drive (1.3GB) on the old HP3K.  Naturally,
compression was enabled on this drive and the vendor can't
read the tape we created.  So, I said to myself (I often
talk to myself after a string of 12-hour days), no problem!
We'll just disable compression with DEVCTRL and cut a new
tape.  To make it even more compatible, I'll use one of
the vendor's tapes that they used to send me an update
with (60M).  Well, here's what happens when I tried it:

:DEVCTRL.MPEXL.TELESUP 7 COMPRESSION=DISABLE
Device = 7, Compression=DISABLE, Eject=Nochange, Load=Nochange


END OF PROGRAM
:FILE T;DEV=TAPE;REC=-276,10,F,ASCII
:FCOPY FROM=W2TAPE.PUB.TPRL;TO=*T
HP31900A.05.02 FILE COPIER (C) HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. 1990

DISPLAY FILE INFORMATION (Y OR N) ?Y
I/O ERROR  (FSERR 69)

+-F-I-L-E---I-N-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N---D-I-S-P-L-A-Y+
!  FILE NAME IS T                                !
!  FOPTIONS: NEW,ASCII,FORMAL,F,NOCCTL,FEQ       !
!            NOLABEL                             !
!  AOPTIONS: OUTKEEP,NOMR,NOLOCK,DEF,BUF,NOMULTI !
!            WAIT,NOCOPY                         !
!  DEVICE TYPE: 24     DEVICE SUBTYPE: 7         !
!  LDEV: 7        DRT: 7         UNIT: 0         !
!  RECORD SIZE: 276    BLOCK SIZE: 2760  (BYTES) !
!  EXTENT SIZE: 0      MAX EXTENTS: 0            !
!  RECPTR: 0           RECLIMIT: 0               !
!  LOGCOUNT: 406          PHYSCOUNT: 41          !
!  EOF AT: 0           LABEL ADDR: %00000000000  !
!  FILE CODE: 0        ULABELS: 0                !
!  FILE OWNER:                                   !
!  PHYSICAL STATUS: 1000000100000001             !
!  ERROR NUMBER: 69    RESIDUE: 1380     (WORDS) !
!  BLOCK NUMBER: 41           NUMREC: 10         !
+------------------------------------------------+
EOF FOUND IN FROMFILE AFTER RECORD 405

406 RECORDS PROCESSED *** 1 ERROR


Now, it so happens that this file has 406 records in it
(according to the EOF):

:LISTF W2TAPE.PUB.TPRL,2
THU, FEB  5, 1998,  4:20 PM

ACCOUNT=  TPRL        GROUP=  PUB

FILENAME  CODE  ------------LOGICAL RECORD-----------  ----SPACE----
                  SIZE  TYP        EOF      LIMIT R/B  SECTORS #X MX

W2TAPE            276B  FA         406      10000  10      688  1 32


So, what is the problem here?  Any ideas?  Personally, I
think it's because the DDS-2 tape drive doesn't like anything
but 120M tapes (well, it might make an exception for a 90M
tape).  What do you think?

Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]      Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231