U s i n g y o u r c o m p u t e r
3/12 LS/VS 550 OWNER’S HANDBOOK
Using a SCSI DDS-2 tape drive
The computer may be configured with a SCSI DDS-2 (Digital Data
Storage v2.0) tape drive. The software needed to control the drive
depends on your operating environment; ask your supplier for
details.
2
3
4
1
1
Cassette insertion slot
2
Cassette-in-place indicator (green)
3
Drive busy indicator (amber)
4
EJECT
button.
The DDS-2 drive has a built-in compression algorithm which can
typically double, and in some cases quadruple, tape capacity. Data
compression and decompression is transparent to the host software.
The DDS-2 drive uses 120-metre cassettes. The drive automatically
detects whether cassettes are DDS-2 format, or the older DDS
format. It can read and write both DDS uncompressed and DDS-
DC compressed data.
The drive writes compressed data by default, unless it finds
uncompressed data already on the cassette. The drive can also write
uncompressed data under software control. When reading a cassette,
the DDS-2 drive automatically distinguishes compressed and
uncompressed data and either decompresses it or passes it through
unaltered as appropriate.