[plug] TAR & MT

[Colin Rothnie]

>I have just had that unfriendly feeling that my backups have not been
>working and someone wants something recovering ... %^(
>

It looks as though the backup script was supposed to write multiple volumes
onto the one tape.  As has been pointed out, you need the /dev/nst0 device
for this, or else each volume will start at the beginning of the tape.  Of
course, the backup script was _thoroughly_ tested after it was written, so
you can be confident that the files are on the tape :-)

I would also suggest the obvious "trick" of flicking the read-only tab on
the backup tape before you try to restore something from it.  I have lost
several backup tapes by quickly typing "tar cv filename" instead of "tar xv
filename".  In this case, I don't think there is any way to retrieve data
from whatever remains in the first volume of the tape.

Cheers
Colin Rothnie