# Tape Drives



## Just_Johnny (Mar 19, 2009)

I've just installed a tape drive on my FreeBSD 7.1 machine.  I'm trying to figure out if it even detected it or not.  

Could somebody please give me some pointers?


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## Christopher (Mar 20, 2009)

How is the tape drive attached to the system?

Can you post your /var/run/dmesg.boot file, assuming you've booted the system with the tape drive attached?


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## tingo (Mar 20, 2009)

Check out the mt(1) man page to find out how tape drives will show up in FreeBSD.


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## Just_Johnny (Mar 20, 2009)

*Thanks*

Someone pointing me to the mt program was the help I needed. I'm new to UNIX but I'm slowly learning my way around.  

It's my understanding now that IDE tape drives aren't supported for FreeBSD. 

Am I wrong?  

Buying a SCSI tape drive isn't a practical solution for me so my only option might be building a windows machine for the job.


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## fronclynne (Mar 20, 2009)

IDE tape drives should be handled by atapist . . . which does not seem to have a corresponding man page . . .

AHA!  It is under ata(4).  They appear to show up as /dev/ast*

And, I (having never owned, nor tried to use, an ata tape drive) have no idea what utility would best interface.  does mt barf?  dd?


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## Just_Johnny (Mar 20, 2009)

It's a Seagate Travan 40.  I'm going to give it a second shot with the info Fronclynne provided.


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