> > Someone in our group accidently overwrote the header file on an 8mm
> > tar archive. We believe what happened was instead of typing tar xvf
> > they typed tar cvf /dev/rmt0 filename while trying to extract
> > filename off the tape. Tar then tried to write filename to tape
> > however when it was not on disk it simple overwrote the header with no
> > file listing. I believe the data ( about 1 GB) is still on the tape
> > however tar just does not know how to access it. We are using AIX
> > ver. 3.2.5 . Please let me know if there is anything I can do to
> > access the data on the tape by email or post. I also have a listing
> > of the tape from before it was corrupted.
> > Thanks in advance.
> > Kevin Ancell
> Let's try that again...
> I would recommend that you research the use of the 'dd' command. It is
> a bit complicated and would take too long to explain here, but you could
> try:
> dd if=/dev/rmt0 of=[file name on disk]
> If there is anything on the tape, that should grab it. You can then try
> using 'tar' on the file that is written to disk and see if the contents
> are still intact.
> Darryn Rose
> http://members.aol.com/rosedw
I would expect that you may have to use the No-rewind device and go
after the second file, or perhaps the third.
This may allow you to get some of the data back, however, a tar archive
does not have a header per-se, and the tar command above most certaily
wrote a tape mark at the end of it's output, the tape.
If my memory serves correctly, a tape mark on 8MM media occupies about
10MB worth of tape space, and and EOT is usually written as a double
Tape Mark.
By all means try to salvage what you can, but don't get your hopes too
high.
I would also suggest that you get in the habbit of Write Protecting
critical tapes.
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