From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 15 21:15:51 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 376031065673 for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:15:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from plane.gmane.org (plane.gmane.org [80.91.229.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E8B308FC0A for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:15:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1S8I1Q-000493-1v for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:15:44 +0100 Received: from 208.85.208.53 ([208.85.208.53]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:15:43 +0100 Received: from atkin901 by 208.85.208.53 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:15:43 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Mark Atkinson Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:15:32 -0700 Lines: 62 Message-ID: References: <201203152017.q2FKH5mN067960@x.it.okstate.edu> <20120315210251.GB9374@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.85.208.53 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD i386; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120220 Thunderbird/10.0.2 In-Reply-To: <20120315210251.GB9374@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.4 Subject: Re: Reading an unknown DAT Tape X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:15:51 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 03/15/2012 14:02, Jerry McAllister wrote: > 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 A quick check of Google with the strings you dumped points at Microsoft Tape format. Possibly from the win2k utility. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (FreeBSD) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk9iW/QACgkQrDN5kXnx8yYRawCePDzWmtZaHrvB1jq3gY3BS96f dvUAnRvBdclM3E0+WDus0dNlPVuN1ELD =p5oa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----