On Fri, 8 Dec 1995 01:51:08 -0500 
 "Gernot M. Fuchs" <gfuchs@golay.med.unc.edu> wrote:

 > I'm using an internal tape drive in my Sun 3/60. I have written the files with
 > an SGI (IRIX 5.2) to a compatible tape drive, since the Sun is w/o OS, hence
 > inoperable.

SGIs have strange tape semantics, namely a "byte-swapping" and 
"non-byte-swapping" flavor of the device.  You might try using the same 
device as before, but pass "conv=swab" to dd(1).  Worth a shot.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
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