Maybe the tape was created using a large buffer, whereas the boot operation, being more primitive, is doing a lot of "shoe shining."

----------
From: 	David Evans[SMTP:dfevans@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca]
Sent: 	Monday, July 07, 1997 09:11
To: 	Dave McGuire
Cc: 	dfevans@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca; port-vax@netbsd.org
Subject: 	Re: DEC's MSCP routines bite

Dave McGuire wrote:
> 
>   I think that's the TK50 being *REALLY* slow. :)
> 

  But I wrote the tape under 1.2C on the same machine in under a minute for
file1 and four or so minutes for file2.

-- 
David Evans          (NeXTMail/MIME OK)             dfevans@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca
Computer/Synth Junkie                      http://bbcr.uwaterloo.ca/~dfevans/
University of Waterloo         "Default is the value selected by the composer
Ontario, Canada           overridden by your command." - Roland TR-707 Manual