Recovering data from unknown tapes
Hi all,
I've scoured this forum (and Google) which has really helped me get to where I am today, let me cut to the chase and explain the situation: I have some DDS-150 (4mm) tapes that contain some data that may be of interest and want to convert it to a more usable/flexible format on an ext HDD or network.
As you can see from above my drive name is nst0 and the usual mf commands work just fine. When trying to determine the data type on the type: Code:
file -< /dev/st0 Code:
/dev/stdin: data Code:
tar: This does not look like a tar archive So I then tried CPIO cpio -civt < /dev/nst0 which just returned a load of junk and some random text from what appears to be within a file. Here I've been able to make some headway using dd (I'm a fairly 'fresh-fish in the Linux world) Code:
dd if=/dev/st0 of=/tmp/file1 Any help/suggestions would be great. Just being able to read the file list on the drive would be a massive bonus, recovering them would be the icing on the cake ;) |
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.
By the way the difference between /dev/st0 and /dev/nst0 is that using /dev/nst0 does not rewind the tape when the current tape operation is completed. Since the tapes are labeled drive D, drive E etc maybe they were created on a Windows operating system. The data on tape could be a proprietary format which might be difficult to recover unless you have the application. You can try viewing /tmp/file1 using a hex editor to see if there is a header or magic number that is readable. |
Just looking at the Wikipedia article reveals that the tapes may be using DCLZ compression. That was usually done by firmware rather than software, I believe, and different manufacturers' products did not always give compatible results.
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When I look at the device list st0 does not exist but nst0 does, figured the drive decided/decides which it's going to be? They very well might have been created on a Windows system but most likely prior to 1997!! Next on my list was to inspect with a hex editor though I can't do this until Monday |
Judging by what you have said, I would imagine they were just daily or weekly backup tapes, probably nothing interesting on them. ;)
You should have full backups of your present data somewhere, in case of emergencies, probably two of, if the data is critical, & these should be updated regularly. |
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At least now I know where to look and will have to find how to get hold of that/run it!! Quote:
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Thanks, I at least know what format they are in and some Googling resulted in a program called mtftar which should convert the bkf to tar BUT I can't seem to find a version that will make, keeps coming up with errors - guessing it's an old unsupported program now and will have to dig out an old XP machine from somewhere :(
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Thought I'd update this with progress, dug out an old XP machine and got the tape drive working... went to recover and it only saw the date created and wouldn't let me recover any files...
So I DD-d all of the drives to a single img file per tape (in linux) and copied across to my Win10 machine running Nucleus Kernel Tape Data Recovery Software - which shows all of the data that is on the tapes! Now I can sift through and find what I want and see if it's worth the fee to buy the software. Thanks everyone for the pointers and help :) |
Thanks for the update
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