Backing up manually with ecrix drive

set the block size to 0 so that the ecrix tape drive can do funky variable speed crap:

mt -f /dev/st0 setblk 0

rewind the tape:

mt rewind

Back up (one file system at a time):

tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f  /dev/st0 /

Restore (to pwd):

tar -x -v -b 128 -f  /dev/st0

The whole enchelada:

tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f  /dev/nst0 /; \
tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f  /dev/nst0 /boot; \
tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f /dev/nst0 /home; \
tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f  /dev/nst0 /usr; \
tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f  /dev/nst0 /var; \
tar -c -v -l -b 128 -f  /dev/st0 /archive