> From: John F. Woods <jfw@jfwhome.funhouse.com>
> > > > > on boot as a "Conner CTMS 3200 7.15".  It takes QIC3080
> > > > > tapes and supposedly is capable of storing 2GB
> > > > > (uncompressed) on each tape.
> >
> > I've had both the CTMS-3200 and the successor CTMS-8000 (which holds 4G on
> > TR-4 Travan cartridges), and they both work perfectly well on x86-based
> > NetBSD.  The only quirk I noted was that the drive is limited to logical
> block
> > sizes of something like 24KB per block; the early CTMS-3200 drive I had
> would
> > lock up solid trying to read a tape written with a blocksize larger than
> that.
>
> I too have both a CTMS-3200 and a Seagate CTT-8000.  Both probe the same:
>
>     scsibus0 targ 4 lun 0: <CONNER, CTT8000-S, 1.17> SCSI2 1/sequential
> removable not configured
>     probe(ncr0:4:1): 5.0 MB/s (200 ns, offset 8)
>
> Of course, the CTT8000-S part is replaced with CTMS-3200 on the older drive.
> ;-)
>
> For backups, I do:
>
>     tar --create --file /dev/nrst0 --block-size
> 16 --gzip --block-compress --verbose --totals --sparse --exclude-from
> backup.exclude /
>
> On the CTMS-3200, I could use a --block-size 32, but that seems to hose
> things up on the CTT-8000.  Any definititive 'best blocksize' to use?
>
> (On a similar note, is there any way I can get the --exclude-from
> functionality calling pax directly?)
>
> I've not tried dump (I prefer tar for backups), but you should be able to
> tell dump the tape-size manually...IIRC the 400M limit is basically a 'safe
> guess' when it gets confused.
>
>

Thanks, Scott.  I'll try "tar" and see if I get better results.
I prefer dump because I got burned a couple of times by tar
not liking long filenames(of course that was at work on the
HP-UX boxes).  That shouldn't make a difference at home
since I don't use ridiculously long filenames like they do
at work...;-)

The initial reason I got interested in "fixing" this was when 
I tried backing up my root drive(2GB) and it took more than
one tape.  If I can get my backups under one tape, I'll be
happy...

Steve B.