From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 22 02:31:09 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3B5ED106564A for ; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:31:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mvoorhis@cs.wpi.edu) Received: from MAIL1.WPI.EDU (MAIL1.WPI.EDU [130.215.36.91]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F273D8FC08 for ; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:31:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from MAIL1.WPI.EDU (MAIL1.WPI.EDU [130.215.36.91]) by MAIL1.WPI.EDU (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id p8M24n0A030223 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:04:49 -0400 Received: from SMTP.WPI.EDU (SMTP.WPI.EDU [130.215.36.186]) by MAIL1.WPI.EDU (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id p8M24niK030220 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:04:49 -0400 Received: from cs.wpi.edu (CS.WPI.EDU [130.215.28.181]) by SMTP.WPI.EDU (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p8M24mDq029511 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:04:49 -0400 (envelope-from mvoorhis@cs.wpi.edu) Received: from cs.wpi.edu (cs.wpi.edu [127.0.0.1]) by cs.wpi.edu (8.14.4/8.14.3/SuSE Linux 0.8) with ESMTP id p8M24mvj013346 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:04:48 -0400 Received: (from mvoorhis@localhost) by cs.wpi.edu (8.14.4/8.14.3/Submit) id p8M24mWo013345; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:04:48 -0400 Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:04:48 -0400 Message-Id: <201109220204.p8M24mWo013345@cs.wpi.edu> From: Michael C Voorhis To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Reading DLT tapes with very large block sizes. 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, 22 Sep 2011 02:31:09 -0000 Hi all, I've been given a set of DLT tapes written with data in fixed 8Mb blocks. I have been unable to convince any OS to read these tapes, and yet I need to read them. Most tape drivers refuse to work with block sizes that are even a fraction of this blocksize. The tapes were created on a Linux machine several years ago using the AMANDA tape backup system. Can anyone offer davice on how I might go about reading these tapes. I'm fine with patching code and installing an altered sa driver, but I lack sufficient knowledge of how the scsi tape driver functions. I'm entirely willing and able to build a machine specifically to read these tapes. Any help, clues, guidance, etc would be wonderful. Thanks, Mike Voorhis (mvoorhis@cs.wpi.edu)