STB Suite

How to manipulate your tape drive

SCSIToolbox provides an easy to use command center to completely control your tape drive. Simply right-click on a tape device in the device display and choose Motion/Data, or click the top-menu choice Tape->Commands->Motion/Data commands.

First we will examine how to Rewind and Unload the drive – these commands are highlighted below:

Notice that at the completion of each command the amount of time used executing the command is displayed. This enables you to quickly compare execution times between different tape drives.

 

 

 

Next we will show how to move the tape using the various SPACE commands. You can space forward or reverse, or space to EOD – End Of Data. When spacing you may specify spacing by block or by filemark, plus you may specify how many blocks or filemarks to space, and whether to space in the forward or reverse direction.

Again, the time to complete the space is displayed, and the current block position is updated in the middle of the screen under “First Block Location”.

 

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The center of the Motion/Data dialog displays the current status of the drive, including the current Block Size, and the position of the media.

 

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The bottom third of the dialog allows you to read or write blocks of data and filemarks.

You can use the Configure Drive buttons to set the blocksize and compression options of the drive, and the Data Pattern to specify what data pattern to use.

 

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The Motion/Data command center gives you a single point to control and test all aspects of your tape drive.