Sun-1 Tape Drive Problems

From: Karl Maftoum <karlm_at_blitzen.canberra.edu.au>
Date: Sun Jul 26 11:16:44 1998

> Start by cleaning the head and drive roller. I've done plenty of
> electronic repairs and mods on these drives, but never tried to re-align
> one. I assume there's an alignment tape (which I've never seen)...

The drive roller was a mess, black gunk getting onto the tape casesm
fortunately not the tape itself, I cleaned it up a bit and it now seems
to turn the tape easier. I'll try cleaning the head tomorrow

> You do realise, I assume, that some of these drives were 4 track, not the
> later 9 track. You're not trying to read a tape written on a 9-track
> drive, are you?

I'd say the tapes match the machine, the tapes are marked SunOS 3.2 68010
Export (boot format) and the one time I got SunOS started of the HDD it
was the same version exactly. I actually have the HDD backups on 1/2"
tape, but none of them are bootable. It is possible the tapes have died,
but I heard of the old sysadmin who operated the machine that the tape
drive was "not quite right".

Cheers
Karl

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Karl Maftoum
Computer Engineering student at the University of Canberra, Australia

Email: k.maftoum_at_student.canberra.edu.au
Received on Sun Jul 26 1998 - 11:16:44 BST