Rak ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: Marco wrote:
: >I am looking for software that will let me convert 9 track reel
: >tapes to DDS/DAT tapes.  I need to convert compatibility mode
: >STORE, Native Mode STORE, and BPXL STORE tapes.  Any suggestions
: >would be appreciated.  Thanks...
: >Marco Martin
: >Senior Computer Tech, Information Systems
: >Elk Grove Unified School District
: >[log in to unmask]
: >916-686-7710 (voice)
 
: Yes! TDTCOPY.PRVXL.TELESUP will do what you want.
:               ^  oops (i think this is the group)
: Use a filequation "file input;dev=tape" to load in the store.
: TDTcopy then makes a compressed file of the tape. (remember the
: file name).
: Exit program and use fileq "file input;dev=dds" to output saved
: store tape image.  Works fine. We needed to use it a few days
: ago.
 
There is a gotcha here (and also for STORCOPY):
 
Some tape drives can write in records > 16 Kwords when a particular
option is specified in Turbostore (MAXTAPEBUF?). HP7978B and HP7980A/XC
drives are known to have this capability. Using these utiities can
truncate these "long" records and make the resulting tapes useless.
This is a limitation on the file system (FOPEN can only handle
a record size of 16 Kwords) and these utilities *Do* use FOPEN.
To see what other drives could induce this problem, do a
"HELP STORE PARMS".
 
If you use these utilities, make sure you confirm your tape via
VALIDATE, VSTORE, or whatever  appropriate for the format you
are copying.
 
The fore-mentioned XOVER utility is another way to go.
 
There is also a tape copying utility supplied with CD-ROM releases.
If you get your MPE updates on MP, this might be worth looking
at. I haven't tried it personally, but I know it was intended to
duplicate combination SLT/STORE tapes, even if multi-reel. I
don't know if it will reconize a non-SLT tape. I believe the
name of the file is "TAPECOPY.HPINSTAL.SYS".
 
--
 
Mike Ryan @ Hewlett Packard Co.