Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:02:52 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> To: Martin McCormick <martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Reading an unknown DAT Tape Message-ID: <20120315210251.GB9374@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <201203152017.q2FKH5mN067960@x.it.okstate.edu> References: <201203152017.q2FKH5mN067960@x.it.okstate.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 03:17:05PM -0500, Martin McCormick wrote: > This is a case of idle curiosity and not an urgent need > to recover a valuable backup. I found an old DAT tape and > attempted to read it on the very drive that probably once wrote > it and it appears to read the tape properly in that I can use dd > to copy it to a file and mt fsf 5, for example, takes the tape > to the fifth file marker so there is sanity. > > Tar, however, does not recognize the format of the > archive so it is either something proprietary or I am not using > the correct utility on it. > > I opened it with dd files=2 if=/dev/sa0 of=testfile and > then did the strings utility on testfile and got: > > TAPE > SSET > VOLB > DIRB > NACL > Setting security > iles > SPAD > DIRB > NACL > Setting security on system files... > SPAD > DIRB > NACL > SPAD > DIRB > NACL > SPAD > FILE > NACL > STAN > Jun 23 2003 12:00AM > Jan 1 1900 8:45AM > Jan 1 1900 9:00AM I wondered about it being a dump(8) file, but just tried one and strings output looked a little different. How about a db of some sort or a log from some lab test? ////jerry > > Note that we are obviously able to read data from the > tape as the top few lines are readible as words. The time stamps > at the bottom are possibly not time stamps as some of them are > not plausible. > > The dd command never faltered with errors although I > did finally stop it manually. > > Is there any FreeBSD utility that can tell more about > what created the original archive? > > Thank you. > > Martin McCormick > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20120315210251.GB9374>