On Sat, 8 Nov 2003, Jason Santos wrote: > On Sat, 2003-11-08 at 17:55, Bryce C wrote: > > The correct way to backup /home to a tape device using tar would be: > > tar cvf /dev/ht0 /home > > or > > tar cf /dev/ht0 /home > Damn, do I feel dumb! I even looked it up in "Running Linux" because I hadn't done it in awhile and proceeded to type it backwards. *However*, the result is the same: [root@localhost /]# tar cvf /home /dev/ht0 tar: /home: Cannot open: Is a directory > > If you want to check the status of the tape drive: > mt -f /dev/ht0 status > [root@localhost holtzm]# mt -f /dev/ht0 status SCSI 2 tape drive: File number=0, block number=0, partition=0. Tape block size 22790 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default). Soft error count since last status=0 General status bits on (0): The only problem is I don't know what this is telling me. Can you decipher this? Thanks for the reply. Thanks also to Bryce C who climbed on me for the same thing. -- Bob Holtzman "Your email is being read by hundreds of uptight agents who never saw the humor in Dr. Strangelove." Mark Russell