Douglas Meade wrote:

> <<snip>>



> The other question is about TK70s.  I got a TK70 controller and
> drive and I tested it by putting it in a Vaxstation 3500 (KA650,
> BA213). It worked fine there.  I then tried it in 3 different
> uVax II's, but it wouldn't work in any of them.  Is this a
> power supply issue, or a slightly different bus, or what?
> I've got a manual for the uVax II, and it clearly shows the
> TK70 as an option for this box, and even has a little section
> describing the operation of this drive.  My symptoms are:
> the uVaxII's successfully recognize the card and drive on boot,
> and I can load and unload the tape.  But when I try to read it,
> I get all sorts of mag tape hardware errors, including a message
> about the tape being read-only.
>
> Any clues would be appreciated.
>
> Doug

  IIRC, the controllers for the TK-50 and TK-70 are different. Another
glitch may be trying to use a TK-50 tape instead of a TK-70. Apparently,
the timing track is written the first time a new (blank0 tape is written
to, and the timing tracks are different between the TK-50 and the TK-70.
Comments have been made about media differences, although I've
demagentized a TK-50 tape (with $1.00's worth of magnets!) and written
to it in a TK-70 drive. This is "officially" frowned upon, and I'm not
counting on that tape for a backup....YMMV.....

Hope this helps...

Stan