You can also pipe everything through a big 'dd' before it hits the tape find blah blah | cpio blah blah | dd bs=2048k of=/dev/rmt/c0s0 This double buffers 2MB at a time. Watch that tape spin! -- "DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT blow the hatch!" /)\ Tom Neff "Roger....hatch blown!" \(/ tneff at bfmny0.BFM.COM