[plug] [OT] Recover data from DDS4 tape

[intra at slowest.net]

Is there anything wrong with the tape or you just dont have backup exec?

I've got a DDS4 tape drive (scsi) and if its just getting the data off
the tape, just gimme a yell.

Pete.

On Fri, Mar 19, 2004 at 01:04:56PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-03-19 at 11:23, Chris Caston wrote:
> 
> > I'm just looking at the customers options at moment. Lots of people told
> > me the IDE DDS4 drives are crap but didn't elaborate on the technical
> > explanation. Surely they must be of some value and could be useful at
> > least for this situation.
> 
> Like any backups, if you don't test them they're probably more harmful
> (in a false sense of security) than they are useful. DDS-4 has low
> capacity, it's error handling is less than ideal, and while it verifies
> as it writes there are questions about how good that verification really
> is. It does, however, work very well in my experience; I've never had
> the budget to work with DLT or LTO.
> 
> > Does anyone know how much the IDE-DDS4 drives are and where to obtain?
> 
> I'm not aware of any existing - IDE tape drives tend to be /really/ crap
> stuff like Travan. If you really need one, just get a SCSI one like
> this:
> http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/dat40/index.html
> instead.
> 
> You may find it more sensible to pay the leg, and take it to
> professional data recovery. You avoid risking damaging the backup,
> having to hunt around for appropriate software to read the backups, etc.
> 
> This, BTW, is why I use good 'ol tar in my backups.
> 
> Craig Ringer
> 
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