Tape and Drive Compatibility for QIC 117 Standard Tape Backup Units

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The controller requirements for floppy disk drive-based backups are as follows:

QIC117 Standard      Supported Tape Formats
===============      ======================
QIC-40               Read/write QIC-40 tapes

QIC-80               Read QIC-40 tapes
                     Read/write QIC/80 tapes
                     Includes WIDE and TR-1 formatted tapes

QIC-3010             Read QIC-40/80 tapes
                     Read/write QIC-3010 tapes
                     Includes WIDE and TR-2 formatted tapes
                     if the drive will accept these

QIC-3020             Read QIC-40/80 tapes and QIC-3010 tapes
                     Read/write QIC-3020 tapes
                     Includes WIDE and TR-3 tapes
				

To determine the computer's floppy disk drive controller type through the Windows NT registry, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: QIC drives will not read tapes formatted with a later QIC Drive series format. For example, QIC-3010 drives will not read QIC-3020-formatted tapes. QIC-40/80 drives will not read QIC-3010 or QIC-3020-formatted tapes.

The drive's functionality and capacity are limited to the lowest common denominator of floppy disk drive controller speed, tape backup unit, or the tape format itself. A QIC-3020 that requires a 1 Mbps controller for full functionality essentially becomes a QIC-3010 series drive when placed on a 500 Kbps controller (and shares the same behavior and limitations as a 3010 Series drive). Compatibility and limitations are summarized in the chart below:

                      Tape Format
QIC117 Standard       40      80     3010    3020
===============       ===========================
40                    RW      x      x       x
80                    R       RW     x       x
3010                  R       R      RW      x
3020                  R       R      R       RW

x = unsupported configuration