DEC TK50-GA tape drive/ Windows 9x

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Sun Oct 7 12:35:23 2001

At 10:22 AM 10/7/01 -0600, you wrote:
>I own a pair of DEC TK50-GA external SCSI tape drives which I'd like to
>use as storage on my PC (Windows 98).
>Can anyone tell me:
> 1. if this is possible
> 2. if possible, what hardware/software is required
> 3. source(s) of required hardware/software
>Kevin Wright
>Email: <mailto:callwright_at_earthlink.net>callwright_at_earthlink.net

1) Yes.

2) You need a SCSI-1 controller (like the Adaptec AHA-15xx series). No
particular software is needed (The Adaptec EZSCSI software will make it
show up as a tape drive to windows backup)

3) Ebay, the local surplus PC shop, ham fests, boot sales, asking around.

However, why would you want to do this? The tape is only capable of
recording 95MB/taps. It is notoriously prone to "eating" tapes, and the
minimum disk size for Win98 is 2GB (which would take about 24 tapes to back
up)

Now, it occurred to me that you may have thought "ohhh, DLT drive, 10 to 20
GB per tape." and if that was the case I hate to disappoint you. You'd
would need to find a TZ89 rather than a TZ85.

--Chuck
Received on Sun Oct 07 2001 - 12:35:23 BST