DAT/DDS email

(war stories)

The following emails have been chosen for their insight, commentary or useful tips and are selectively edited. Please see the note about my policy on email addresses on the main page.

• Russell Salerno commiserated.
• Jim Lilly had some success fitting new EPROMs.
• Daryle Tilroe had a lot of frustration.
• Michael Deiss found a compatible drive.
• Eric Boucher successfully updated his drive using 5.ACB firmware. Mail him for more details.
• Douglas Mandell successfully blew an EPROM with new firmware for his SGI Python drive.
• Jos Heemskerk flashed his existing EPROM with new firmware after many tries, and here gives step by step instructions (see also his new site, listed on the hardware page). Charles Johnston added a word of warning after toasting his drive, but later recanted when he discovered that only the ID had changed as detailed below.
• Max noted that SCSI IDs may change after flashing some drives, and provided a table showing the settings.
• John Anderson and Mark Dove both had remarkable success in flash upgrading drives using FUP and are willing to help others.
• Mark Mayhle reported success flashing a CTD-8000 he picked up on Ebay.
• Michael Block found a source for SGI-compatible OEM SDT-9000s.
• Phillipe Legault flashed a Seagate CTD-8000 successfully using firmware from Jos.
• Andrew Myer sent an English translation of Torsten Lang's web page.
• Chris Stos-Gale bought a Seagate CTD-8000, flashed it and found software that would read his DAT tapes.

Further kudos and acknowledgements to: Jim McLaughlin; Joseph Gray; Peregrine Anon ;-); Eric vanLuijk.

Please note: Some people ask me for help or pointers and then I never hear from them again. This benefits no one. Please let me know how you get on with the firmware, upgraders, DAT drives and any other information from these pages. Myself and others will really appreciate your courtesy!

Also, I often receive emails along the lines of "I have a WingWang POO-321 drive. What firmware do I need and have you got it?" Sorry people, all the information I have that you need is in these pages somewhere, and I'm too busy to read it out to you individually. Do your own research.