"Dieter BSD" <dieter...@engineer.com> wrote: > IIRC some tape drives can seek, while others cannot. > Vague memories that it is supposed to be possible to put a > filesystem on a DECtape and mount the filesystem.
Back in the Bell Labs 6th Edition days, it was possible to put a filesystem on a _9-track magtape_ and mount it, although such a mount had to be read-only since writing to a 9-track would effectively delete any blocks following the one written. I've done it. Access was painfully slow (no surprise), but it did work. DECtape _could_ be updated in place. It was effectively the linear equivalent of a floppy disk (before floppy disks existed). Sequential access was slow. Random access was very slow. _______________________________________________ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
