Thread: Accessing Old DDS2 Tapes

i’m trying access data set of dds2 tapes dating 1995-1997. i’m using sun systems dds2 drive , have been successful in reading , writing spare blank dds2 tape using drive. i’m having trouble doing same collection of older tapes. attempts @ creating disk images of tapes has yielded files 0 bytes , when attempt read of data on tapes or generate table of contents, series of error messages. i’ve tried querying tape using wildcards stand in file names (no idea what’s on tapes, can’t search individual files) , tar, zip , gzip formats, used @ time tapes created.

here commands i’ve used , errors i’ve gotten:

create disk image:

problems@problems-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/st0 of=/home/problems/tape1.img
dd: reading `/dev/st0': input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 b) copied, 9.58826 s, 0.0 kb/s

generate table of contents:

problems@problems-desktop:~$ sudo tar -tzf /dev/st0
tar: /dev/st0: cannot read: input/output error
tar: @ beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: error not recoverable: exiting now

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: child returned status 2
tar: error exit delayed previous errors

anyone know why might getting these errors or workarounds them?

posted laundryday

i’m trying access data set of dds2 tapes dating 1995-1997. i’m using sun systems dds2 drive , have been successful in reading , writing spare blank dds2 tape using drive. i’m having trouble doing same collection of older tapes.
..........

1. unless have been doing regular tape maintenance - , means loading each tape , running through end end - every year or 2 at most chances tapes have deteriorated beyond recovery.
2. if tapes written on particular drive head geometry of drive using may different enough not able read old tapes (and these old).
3. being able recover magnetic media has not been stored in optimum conditions after couple of years problematic, if these 17+ year old tapes have not been stored in perfect conditions surprised data @ off them.

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