Topic: Internal DAT drive?

[Joe w.]

fwiw, i got my 2940au adaptec scsi card and cable off ebay for ~35

[CHURCH-AUDIO]

I don't know of any dds drives that read audio tapes. my drives certainly don't like them......but will read most dds, data tapes.

dat drives that read audio from dds tapes.
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571/datfaq.htm

firmware flash instructions:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~heemsker/fup/

Thank Joe!

Maybe this is a stupid question, but what is there a difference between DDS and audio grade tapes other than length?

The difference is the robustness of the tape shell it self. Data tapes are ment for heavy use. Dat audio is ment for light use. So there are better spacers in between the two halves of the cassette housing and better tape guides inside the tape housing and the tape it self is slightly thicker .

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Does anyone here have/use an internal DAT drive? Are any models able to rip audio tapes out of the box, or do they require special software or update the firmware etc. ? If so, what's should I expect to spend? I have a ton of DAT masters I'd like to rip and archive.

After reading this thread, I went on ebay.  I just got two scsi cards and a Seagate 8000 deck for .99 + 11.00 shipping.  At those prices, you might as well try it.  If you get a deck and no card, you can have my extra, assuming the guys comes through.

So wheres my heady firmware update?

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

Does anyone here have/use an internal DAT drive? Are any models able to rip audio tapes out of the box, or do they require special software or update the firmware etc. ? If so, what's should I expect to spend? I have a ton of DAT masters I'd like to rip and archive.

After reading this thread, I went on ebay.  I just got two scsi cards and a Seagate 8000 deck for .99 + 11.00 shipping.  At those prices, you might as well try it.  If you get a deck and no card, you can have my extra, assuming the guys comes through.

So wheres my heady firmware update?

I'll wait and see how it goes for you. 

I do have a good number that are DDS grade tapes, so this might be a good option yet.

[tchoub]

Does anyone here have/use an internal DAT drive? Are any models able to rip audio tapes out of the box, or do they require special software or update the firmware etc. ? If so, what's should I expect to spend? I have a ton of DAT masters I'd like to rip and archive.

After reading this thread, I went on ebay.  I just got two scsi cards and a Seagate 8000 deck for .99 + 11.00 shipping.  At those prices, you might as well try it.  If you get a deck and no card, you can have my extra, assuming the guys comes through.

So wheres my heady firmware update?

here for some explanation on which drive are flashable and there for the FUP software and the needed firmware.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

here for some explanation on which drive are flashable and there for the FUP software and the needed firmware.

Thanks! 

I'm not using this in a windows machine.  With those update programs run properly under wine on linux?

[sleepypedro]

if anybody's mousy about flashing their own drives, i've upgraded about a dozen CTD-8000 drives and would be glad to give an assist to whoever needs it.

the used CTD-8000s i buy on ebay have about a 33% success rate.  most of them flash successfully with the audio firmware, but even after that many times the drive won't successfully mount a tape with audio content.  (i forget the exact error in dat2wav, but.. suffice to say the end result is you get no juice!)

seriously, drop me a PM if you need a helping hand.

peter

[tchoub]

I'm not using this in a windows machine.  With those update programs run properly under wine on linux?

You need to create a bootable disk to update the firmware of the drive. FUP works under DOS.
So, it should work under linux I think. (I've not updated my drive under linux so I can't be totally sure).