3B1 Floppy backup advice

As mentioned in another thread we have two fully functional 3B1's, one
is in daily use running proprietary application software and the other
functions as a spare. Whenever the current machine fails (typically
hard drive) I restore the latest backup to the spare machine, put it
into service, and replace the bad part in the failed machine.

This strategy has served us well for several years, but now the tape
drive is showing signs of failure. It still works correctly if only
one tape is used, but if an additional cartridge is required during
the operation the 3B1 cannot verify that the tape has rewound or if
the door is locked. I imagine this is a switch failure on the drive
because changing the cable and tape adapter board did not help. I have
purchased three tape drives via the internet, but none have worked
reliably and two places which thought they could service the drives
did not succeed.

I decided to make a complete floppy backup to see how unpleasant (120
diskettes) it would be. While formating diskettes on the spare machine
I archived some files to reduce the size of the backup. One file took
a very long time to write (several minutes). Afterwards I was able to
see the file on the diskette, but only once. Thereafter the drive was
unable to recognize ANY diskette. I then placed the same diskette in
the drive of the spare machine and not only was it unable to read it,
but thereafter it was also unable to recognize ANY diskette. The
probabilty of simultaneous failure of two drives seems tiny. My guess
is that the surface of the diskette deteriorated and fouled or damaged
the heads. I discarded that diskette and I have installed replacement
floppy drives.

Questions:

0. Does anyone have a working 3B1 tape drive that they would sell?

1. Is the built-in floppy backup the best system, or is there a
superior command line alternative? In particular I am concerned about
losing an entire backup if one diskette fails. (I am a computer user,
no programming knowledge. As a practical matter the alternative would
need to be something that is part of Unix 3.51m or available as a
downloadable executable.)

2. Any idea what caused the diskette drives to fail and how they might
be repaired? I tried cleaning the head with a Qtip and tape head
cleaning fluid, but no effect.


dennis








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Relevant Pages

  • Re: 3B1 Floppy backup advice
    ... the underside of the board to see whether any of the solder joints to ... one tape is used, but if an additional cartridge is required during ... reliably and two places which thought they could service the drives ... see the file on the diskette, ...
    (comp.sys.3b1)
  • Re: Escaping Data Rot
    ... I can backup my entire server on a single tape in less than an hour. ... The tape goes in my briefcase and travels to the office with me so there's always an off-site copy. ... And all the panoply of disk tools can be ... Some types of tape drives do read-after-write to check for bit errors, but off the top of my head I cannot state whether or not LTO drives do this. ...
    (comp.sys.apple2)
  • Re: VmWare?
    ... Try the backup method of Champions: Digital Linear Tape. ... Not sure how much data you need to have on-line at a time, but 70GB DLT IV drives are a $30.00 item on eBay with tapes a dime-a-dozen. ... Reminds me of the old "Stringy Floppy" drives from Exatron. ...
    (comp.os.cpm)
  • Re: despair
    ... So why don't you ask why the ALLOCATE command only gives a W when it ... better situation than if the same tape were in the drive all the time. ... The tape drives are in the data center which is locked. ... You're clearly not reading my posts very carefully and now ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: External RAMdisk
    ... technology has a defined wearout. ... I avoided Zip, Jaz, Syquest and other removeable hard drives. ... I've got to wonder if there's a "universal tape drive" ... for burned CD's vs RW CD's vs masked CDs and DVDs? ...
    (comp.os.cpm)