Sony AIT2 Tape loader.. Tape positions ?

[slukes]

OK..

 

Sony AIT2 4 Tape loader. Has slots 1.2.3.4

 

Bit confused .. as Retrospect also has 'tape 1.2.3.4'

 

but they don't correspond... which is kinda silly...

 

last night with 4 blank tapes retrospect used tape 4 1st even though it has to cycle them all round to get to that!

 

anyone else have this?

[toby]

I also use a Sony AIT2 autoloader. I don't think it's important that Retrospect's tape sequence and the autoloader magazine positions match. It would be tricky to set that up in any case.

 

What I believe should happen is that the MIC (Memory In Cassette) identification should be written to each tape, and Retrospect can use that to identify media in the autoloader.

 

However, I have had trouble getting Retrospect to run unattended with the autoloader, even after a manual "Scan Media" operation. I haven't seen any way to resolve that. Maybe someone at Dantz knows more.

[TQE]

Yes, have the same machine and the same behavior. It does seem a bit bizarre that Retrospect uses #4 first. Maybe you've already done this, but I figured out which slot was which and I used a Sharpie to number the slots on the side of the cartridge. You can't label new tapes until they've been written to, and you figure out what each one's Retrospect name/# is. It is indeed kind of odd, but it seems to be the way things are.

[AmyJ]

When you insert a new magazine, Retrospect must scan the contents before starting a backup. The scan is done sequentially - Tape 1, Tape 2, Tape 3, Tape 4. The last tape scanned is left in the drive. When you start a backup that requires blank media, it will go ahead and use the tape that is in the drive - in this case Tape 4. The next known blank tape was slot 3, which is then used, and so on. I'm familiar with this drive - it requires all the tapes to be 'moved' in order to load a tape. Hope this helps!