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NOTE: Prior to Version 2.10.1 of IRAF arriving on the mountain, we
experienced a number of unpleasant difficulties with tape writing. With
the current version of IRAF and ICE these problems appear to have
been solved. However, these troubled times reminded us all of the importance
of ``safe taping" practices. We remind the observer that s/he, and s/he
alone, is responsible for keeping one's bits safe. We recommend the
following before deleting any data from disk:
- Each night write data to whatever media you like using wfits.
- Read the tape using rfits mta make- old+ to substantiate everything
is there.
- Deallocate the drive, remove the tape, and stick it under your
pillow.
- Make a second copy of your tape. (This tape could be an accumulative
copy of the data throughout your run.) Check this tape with rfits!
- Only now delete the data from disk if necessary.
You may also wish to use alterative means of getting your data home.
See Section D.
jbarnes@noao.edu
Tue Feb 14 07:48:00 MST 1995