Re: [Dump-users] Saving that *last* tape that turns out bad...

[<br...@ke...>]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 12:30:34AM -0700, Kenneth Porter wrote:

> --On Thursday, September 18, 2008 2:48 PM -0700 Steve Bonds 
> <fb7...@sn...> wrote:
> 
> > (Note that dd_rescue doesn't use if= or of= and relies on the
> > parameter position to identify the input and output.  Best to avoid
> > getting them mixed up.)
> 
> When disaster strikes, the first step should be to write-protect your 
> backup media. I've been doing this since I used floppies on PCs. It's too 
> easy to make mistakes under the stress of recovery, when suffering from the 
> drunkenness of adrenalin.

I always write protect the tapes after I write them...but I forgot to 
write back and tell of the happy ending though:

I dug out the original tape drive that made the tapes.  Even though it 
was supposedly the same exact model (Seagate Scorpion 80), it read the 
tape without a problem, when the other drive just gave up on that one 
specific tape from the set over and over.

Tape drives are such peculiar animals!

-- 
+ Brent A. Busby	 + "We've all heard that a million monkeys
+ UNIX Systems Admin	 +  banging on a million typewriters will
+ University of Chicago	 +  eventually reproduce the entire works of
+ Physical Sciences Div. +  Shakespeare.  Now, thanks to the Internet,
+ James Franck Institute +  we know this is not true." -Robert Wilensky