>>>>> "John" == John Nemeth <jnemeth@cue.bc.ca> writes:

[about *fsf OVER an EOT on a QIC]

John>      BZZT!  You obviously don't have much experience with
John> Tandberg QIC drives.  I routinely store multiple "files" on
John> tapes using them.  Just feof and start writing.  You can just
John> fsf past files, you need an extra fsf, if theres an end-of-media
John> mark (two consecutive EOF marks), or if you know the block
John> number you can simply seek to it (they are capable of random
John> seeks, i.e. step head step head, position tape).  Note, that
John> some vendors OEM Tandberg drives and install custom ROM's (most
John> notably IBM), so you may need to find an unadulterated drive.

	While I can easily accept that different drives perform
differently (that was the just of what I posted earlier) you are
talking about something entirely different than the previous poster.
He was saying that you can't step over an end of media mark and read
data that follows.

	By and large, that's true for for modern drives (QIC 8mm
4mm).  Even if the drive has the ability to random-seak, many OS
flavors will still honour an EOM.  To preform the truely random
function, they often require you format the cartridge.

	Anyways... You are talking about append... he was talking
about recovery.

Dave.

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|David Gilbert, PCI, Richmond Hill, Ontario.  | Two things can only be     |
|Mail:      dgilbert@pci.on.ca                |  equal if and only if they |
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