Date Product Document ID Subject October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00001 Multiple tape tar backups October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00002 Windows NT DEC Alpha version October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00003 Appending to tar tapes in Tar98 October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00004 Date validation/checking October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00005 Appending to tar tapes in Tar98 and indexing October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00006 UNIX dd and cpio October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00007 Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00008 Year 2000 (Y2K) and Tar98 October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00009 Tar98 and Backup Exec. software October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00010 Running Tar98 in Windows NT 4.0 Server and Workstation October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00011 Tar98 registration code problems October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00012 Tar file size limit October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00013 Hardware compression October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00014 Blocking factor October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00015 Setting up a tape device October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00016 NT file permissions and ownership October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00017 Floppy/diskette October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00018 Command line arguments October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00019 Tar98 version number October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00020 Trial version of Tar98 October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00021 Pricing October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00022 Purchasing Tar98 October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00023 Upgrades October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00024 Tar98 in Windows 95 and Windows 98 October 25, 1999 Tar98 tar98-00025 Control M characters (^M) in ASCII text files March 11, 2000 Tar98 tar98-00026 Tar Record Validation March 11, 2000 Tar98 tar98-00027 Windows 2000 December 4, 2002 Tar98 tar98-00028 File extraction by selection (BUG).
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00001
Subject: Multiple tape tar backups
Question: Can Tar98 read and/or write tar records that span multiple tapes?
Answer: Sorry, Tar98 can not read and/or write tar records that span multiple tapes.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00002
Subject: Windows NT DEC Alpha version
Question: Does Tar98 run in the Windows NT 4.0 DEC Alpha version?
Answer: ObjectFusion has not tested Tar98 in the DEC Alpha version of Windows NT 4.0, but there are companies that have had success doing this. To make this work, we have been told that you must install Tar98 using FX32 utility.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00003
Subject: Appending to tar tapes in Tar98.
Question: How does an append in Tar98 work? Does it add additional tar records or just add to the ones already on the tape?
Answer: Tar98 will always append to the first tar record on a tar tape when using the append option. This means that if there are additional tar records already on the tape they will be lost or possibly written over with the data appended to the first tar record. Tar98 can read multiple tar records from a tar tape but can not write more than one tar record to a tape. Since when writing to tar files each file is a separate record, this question doesn't really apply in that situation.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00004
Subject: Date validation/checking
Question: Does Tar98 do any data validation, checking, or verifying when writing data to a tar tape or file?
Answer: No, Tar98 does not do any data validation, checking, or verifying. Tar98 is a tool that is meant to facilitate the transfer of data between UNIX and Windows NT 4.0 via tape media. Tar98 is not meant to be used as a backup or archival tool.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00005
Subject: Appending to tar tapes in Tar98 and indexing.
Question: Does Tar98 have to get an index or catalog of what is on a tar tape before appending to it?
Answer: No, Tar98 only scans to the end of the first tar record on a tape when appending and then appends the data.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00006
Subject: UNIX dd and cpio
Question: Can Tar98 read and/or write tapes written with the UNIX DD or cpio commands?
Answer: No, Tar98 can only read and/or write tapes using the tar format. This includes the tar format that most brands of UNIX support. A few examples would be Sun Solaris, HP HP-UX, IBM AIX, SCO, and Linux. SGI IRIX uses a byte-swapped version of tar that is also supported in Tar98 both when writing and reading tar tapes. One restriction that does exist with Tar98 is the blocking factor that can be used. The tape device drivers in Windows NT 4.0 restrict Tar98 from using blocking factors of over approximately 1024 (can vary depending on the tape device). This means that Tar98 sometimes can not read tapes written in UNIX at high blocking factors. This is generally not a problem since most tar tapes written in UNIX are blocked at 20, but SGI IRIX is an example of a platform that defaults to high blocking factors that can sometimes be a problem.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00007
Subject: Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack
Question: What Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack should I be running with Tar98?
Answer: Tar98 requires Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 or better to run correctly
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00008
Subject: Year 2000 (Y2K) and Tar98
Question: Is Tar98 Y2K compliant?
Answer: Yes, Tar98 has been tested and is Year 2000 (Y2K) compliant.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00009
Subject: Tar98 and Backup Exec. software
Question: Are there problems running Tar98 on the same Windows NT 4.0 system with other backup software such as Veritas Backup Exec (formerly Seagate Backup Exec).
Answer: Yes, there are potential problems when running Tar98 with other backup software packages on the same Windows NT 4.0 system. An example of this is Veritas Backup Exec (formerly Seagate Backup Exec). Since Backup Exec has services continuously running in Windows NT 4.0 that essentially take over the tape device in use, Tar98 can not read or write to these same tape devices while these services are running. To fix this problem, the Backup Exec services must be manually stopped to allow you to use Tar98, and then manually restarted afterwards.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00010
Subject: Running Tar98 in Windows NT 4.0 Server and Workstation
Question: Is there any difference in running Tar98 in Windows NT 4.0 Server or Workstation?
Answer: No, as long as you are running the appropriate Service Pack level (currently Service Pack 4 or better) Tar98 should run exactly the same in either the Server or Workstation versions of Windows NT 4.0.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00011
Subject: Tar98 registration code problems.
Question: I've received my Tar98 registration code and it doesn't work!
Answer: This could be because of a lot of things, but here are a few common problems:
1 - Even though it sounds obvious, the most common reason is because the 1 (the number one), the i's (the letter i, "eye"), and the l's (the letter l, "elle") are confused. Please try different combinations before assuming you have the wrong code.
2 - Many times the customer will have an old version of Tar98 that they have either downloaded some time ago or that they downloaded from a web-site other than ObjectFusion's that is not up to date. ObjectFusion changes the code generator from time-to-time, so you should always make sure you have the latest download when you purchase Tar98. At the time of this entry, Tar98 version 2.28 is the latest version.
3 - Often a customer will purchase Tar98 through a purchasing agent within their company or for whatever reason possibly use someone else's name or even company name when purchasing Tar98. Since ObjectFusion generates Tar98 codes partially using the registration information presented at the time of purchase (person's first and last name and company name) this same information must be entered into Tar98 by the end user when registered Tar98. If this information was incorrectly presented to ObjectFusion at the time of purchase it can be corrected and a new code generated by visiting support and filling out the online help form.
If none of these 3 items help, please visit support and fill out the online form to get help.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00012
Subject: Tar record size limit
Question: Does Tar98 have a size limit of 2GB?
Answer: All versions of Tar98 prior to 2.44 (May 17, 2001) had a limit of about 2 gigabytes per file in an archive. In version 2.44, support was added to increase this limit to 68 gigabytes. This is the maximum size supported by the tar standard. Currently, the largest supported archive is about 2 terabytes.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00013
Subject: Hardware compression
Question: Does Tar98 support my tape drives hardware compression?
Answer: Tar98 will use hardware compression if the tape driver and tape drive support it.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00014
Subject: Blocking factor
Question: What is the blocking factor?
Answer: The blocking factor is the block size that a tar record is written in ([blocking size] = [blocking factor] * 512). Because of limitations of earlier tape devices used with older UNIX systems, this blocking factor had to be defined before writing an archive, and you had to know what was used to read it back. This old requirement stills exists today in the tar format even though newer formats don't necessary use it, they use newer more efficient methods since today's hardware doesn't dictate it's use. You can set the default blocking factor that will be used in Tar98 under the "Options" pull down menu. The tape device drivers in Windows NT 4.0 restrict Tar98 from using blocking factors of over approximately 1024 (can vary depending on the tape device). This means that Tar98 sometimes can not read tapes written in UNIX at high blocking factors. This is generally not a problem since most tar tapes written in UNIX are blocked at 20, but SGI IRIX is an example of a platform that defaults to high blocking factors that can sometimes be a problem.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00015
Subject: Setting up a tape device
Question: How do you setup a tape device for use with Tar98?
Answer: Tar98 does not provide any help in actually getting a tape device connected to a Windows NT 4.0 workstation or server (you must be running Service Pack 4). Before you can use Tar98 with a tape device you must first connect it using the appropriate SCSI cables to your SCSI connection on the Windows NT 4.0 system (assuming it's an external device), configure it's drivers under the SCSI Adapter icon (in the control panel), and possibly do a reboot, that should be all that's required. Once the device has been configured correctly in Windows NT and shows up in Windows NT Backup, then Tar98 will work with it.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00016
Subject: NT file permissions and ownership
Question: Does Tar98 retain Windows NT file permissions and ownerships when writing them to a tar record?
Answer: No, since Windows NT file permissions and ownerships do not exist in UNIX and are not part of the tar specification, Tar98 does not include them in tar records when they are created.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00017
Subject: Floppy/diskette
Question: Can Tar98 read and write tar floppy/diskettes?
Answer: Yes, Tar98 can read and write tar floppy/diskettes. This can come in handy when small amounts of data need to be transferred between UNIX and Windows NT 4.0 systems that are not on the same network.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00018
Subject: Command line arguments
Question: Does Tar98 have any command line arguments?
Answer: Tar98 is only meant to be used using it's GUI (graphical user interface) and does not have any command line arguments.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00019
Subject: Tar98 version number
Question: What version of Tar98 am I running?
Answer: You can check to see what version of Tar98 you are running by going to the "Help" drop down menu and choosing "About Tar" inside of Tar98. Currently, version 2.28 is the latest version.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00020
Subject: Trial version of Tar98
Question: Can I download a trial version of Tar98?
Answer: Yes, when you download Tar98 from the ObjectFusion web site and run it for a trial period of 5 hours. Once the 5 hour trial period expires you must purchase Tar98 to continue using it. You can purchase Tar98 by visiting purchase.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00021
Subject: Pricing
Question: How much does Tar98 cost?
Answer: You can get Tar98 pricing by visiting purchase.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00022
Subject: Purchasing Tar98
Question: What do I get when I purchase Tar98?
Answer: When you purchase Tar98 you get a code that enables you to use the Tar98 software that you downloaded from the Internet for more than the 5 hour trial period. You will not receive Tar98 on CD-ROM in the mail or any other documentation other than your Tar98 Certificate of Ownership. You can purchase Tar98 on CD upon request for an additional $10.00 above and beyond the price of Tar98.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00023
Subject: Upgrades
Question: How do upgrades work with Tar98?
Answer: Up until the current version of Tar98 (version 2.28) all upgrades have been free to existing Tar98 customers.. Since Tar98 is distributed over the Internet, offering free upgrades is possible. Most new versions of Tar98 have offered both bug fixes and functionality enhancements. At some point in the future it is likely that a substantial amount of functionality will be added within one release (very likely version 3.0), at this point a charge for this upgrade will be likely. Until then, upgrades that offer bug fixes and incremental functionality improvements and enhancements will continue to be free to existing Tar98 customers.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00024
Subject: Tar98 in Windows 95 and Windows 98
Question: Does Tar98 work in Windows 95 or Windows 98?
Answer: Tar98 does work in Windows 95 and Windows 98, but Tar98 only supports tape devices in Windows NT 4.0. What this means is that Tar98 can only read and write tar files in Windows 95 and Windows 98. When used in Windows NT 4.0, Tar98 can read and write tar tapes and floppies/diskettes as well.
Date: October 25, 1999
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00025
Subject: Control M characters (^M) in ASCII text files
Question: After moving ASCII text files from Windows to UNIX they have control M characters (^M) in them?
Answer: You will always see this in ASCII text files that are transferred to UNIX from any DOS or Windows platform. Typically most UNIX operating systems have a "unix2dos" command to remove them from ASCII text files if you find that this is necessary.
Date: March 11, 2000
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00026
Subject: Tar Record Validation
Question: Why doesn't Tar98 see any data on my tape?
Answer: Tar98 tries to determine if the tape that it is reading is a valid TAR archive. It does this by checking certain fields in the header of each record. Some versions of UNIX don't put the correct data in these key fields. These conditions make Tar98 skip valid data in the archive. The solution to this problem is to set the option Tools->Options->Archive Settings->Validate Type to unchecked. This forces Tar98 to treat all data as valid TAR records.
Date: March 11, 2000
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00027
Subject: Windows 2000
Question: Is Tar98 compatible with Windows 2000?
Answer: Yes, Tar98 has been extensively tested with Windows 2000.
Date: December 4, 2002
Product: Tar98
Document ID: tar98-00028
Subject: File extraction by selection (BUG).
Question: Why don't the files that I select in the Tar98 GUI get extracted properly when I just select a few of them?
Answer: Well, we could give a flowery answer and point you to a service pack like the makers of our operating system does, but that happens too way too often. The short answer is that we had a bug in the software and we fixed it. Anyway, if you download version, 2.49 the problem will go away.