Very Computer

We recently got a new system equipped with the Exabyte Mammoth drive (40
GB compressed).

I attempted to order 170M AME tapes (regular 8mm tapes can't be written
to) and was told that Exabyte is allocating them and a ship date could
not be determined.

Are the tapes really that scarce? Or do I need a different supplier?

How can Exabyte possibly hope that the Mammoth will become a mainstream
tape drive standard if commodity supplies like tapes are simply
unavailable?????

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Quote:> I attempted to order 170M AME tapes (regular 8mm tapes
> can't be written to) and was told that Exabyte is
> allocating them and a ship date could not be determined.

Quote:> Are the tapes really that scarce? Or do I need a different
> supplier?

Quote:> How can Exabyte possibly hope that the Mammoth will become
> a mainstream tape drive standard if commodity supplies
> like tapes are simply unavailable?????

-Dan

--
Dan Birchall - Internet Sysadmin - 16 Straight Communications
520 Fellowship Road, Suite A-112, Mount Laurel, NJ 08054-3400
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Quote:

>This is the first time I've heard the Mammoth even mentioned;
>is it a new unit?  If it's just been introduced, they may not
>be up to full quantities on the production line yet.

>-Dan

        Cheers,
                Mario

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Quote:>> How can Exabyte possibly hope that the Mammoth will become
>> a mainstream tape drive standard if commodity supplies
>> like tapes are simply unavailable?????

>This is the first time I've heard the Mammoth even mentioned;
>is it a new unit?  If it's just been introduced, they may not
>be up to full quantities on the production line yet.

We've tried several suppliers, and they're all saying that the Mammoth
tapes are difficult to get hold of - they're also very expensive, the
best price we've been quoted to date was 51 UKP in batches of 10.

Our Mammoth is a bit temperamental, and needs cleaning on a regular
basis - having said that, it's fast, and we could more than double our
current disk capacity without having to worry about buying another tape
drive.

Chris
--
Chris King

http://www.csking.demon.co.uk

We must have hogged up the last big bunch I have 200 of the puppies.

Now as for Mamoth drives, we've been using them, and their performance is
outstanding, however, and I know this is a Sys Admin No No, but READ THE
DOCUMENTATION if you want to get the performance out of the drives.

There is a string that you need to enter into the /kernel/drv/st.conf file
as follows

1.  remove the # from the line
     #tape-config-list=

2.  look for the line that reads
    # "EXABYTE EXB8500C", "Exabyte 8500C Helical Scan", "EXB-850X",

3.  On the next line enter
     "EXABYTE EXB-8900", "Exabyte Mammoth","mam-data";

4.  Find the line that reads
    # "EXB-850X = 1,0x29,0,0xce39,4,0x14,0x15,0x8c,0x8c,1;

5.  On the next line enter
    mam-data=1,0x29,0,0x1de39,1,0x7f,0;

6.  Save the st.conf file

7.  Reboot that sun box of yours

Now make sure that these fields are exact if they aren't you are screwed.
Then the tape drive acts like an old reel to reel drive.  Good luck and
remember READ YOUR DOCUMENTATION.

the Reverend bOB

--
---
Scott Packard

Quote:> We recently got a new system equipped with the Exabyte Mammoth drive (40
> GB compressed).

> I attempted to order 170M AME tapes (regular 8mm tapes can't be written
> to) and was told that Exabyte is allocating them and a ship date could
> not be determined.

> Are the tapes really that scarce? Or do I need a different supplier?

> How can Exabyte possibly hope that the Mammoth will become a mainstream
> tape drive standard if commodity supplies like tapes are simply
> unavailable?????

Quote:>The problem is that Exabyte has only one manufacturing plant that is
>producing the Mammoth tapes.  We have had tapes on back order
>from MicroAge for at least the past two months.

At one point, we even had *suppliers* offering to buy AME tapes back off
us at a premium - not something you want to hear when you're down to
your last tape !!
--
Chris King

http://www.csking.demon.co.uk

: >The problem is that Exabyte has only one manufacturing plant that is
: >producing the Mammoth tapes.  We have had tapes on back order
: >from MicroAge for at least the past two months.

: I've heard rumours that Sony may be producing them as well - anyone know
: if this is true ? And if so, are they any good ?

*Heard* that too. And Sony tapes costs about 40% less than Exabyte...

--



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Quote:> *Heard* that too. And Sony tapes costs about 40% less than Exabyte...

--
-Peter Tribble
HGMP Computing Services
http://www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk/~ptribble/