[Info-vax] Copying VMS SaveSet Under Windows

[Bob Koehler]

In article <4ce97016$0$2290$c3e8da3$c8b7d2e6 at news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> writes:
> About ANSI tapes:
> 
> Question: does the tape drive itself signal end of file and end of tape
> ? Or just end of tape ?
> 
> or does the tape automatically  skip inter block gaps and return block
> after block, with only end of tape being signaled ?

   It no doubt depends on the tape technology.  Old 9-tracks had a 
   special block that was written to the tape and indicated end of 
   file.  Generally the controller/formatter would recognize this and 
   pass and EOF indication back, not data.  IIRC on 8mm this had to be 
   emulated.

   And for really high volume streams I've used 14 and 48 track tapes
   which had no inter-record gaps and didn't indicate end of anything.

   QIC tapes could get really hairy.  Never mix QIC cartridges between
   systems that wanted formatted vs. unformatted tapes, unless you are
   in control of formatting.