Hello rarely write for my bad language. recently purchased a tape drive which I think may be worth. The data is always compressed, and the best way to remove it using Windows NT4 and "NT Backup" that is compatible with DTL Tape format and DSSThe data is always compressed, and the best way to remove it using Windows NT4 and "NT Backup" that is compatible with DTL Tape format and DSS
http://www.tapestockonline.com/dltadrdacoq.htm A nice FAQ here, bit simple but it'll give you a good jist of things. What might complicate things is that the compression can be on the hardware side OR the software side of things - meaning the drive itself could compress the data while writing to the tape or the computer end of things could be compressing the data then sending it to the drive. Not sure what would happen if you popped in a hardware compressed tape into a drive that didn't support that algorithm off the bat. I'm going to guess it wouldn't be able to read it or it'd suggest formatting it. Though from the sound of it they use something akin to zlib.
The tapes are probably formats / SPARC /, and its interior have daily incremental backups of the applications or tools they used or used as well as technical information
I don't really like the idea of sending anything like this to anyone, regardless. Because if things don't go your way, it can open up a whole new can of problems that can be beyond your control. There are many problems I can list, but I think you can have a general idea. In my opinion, you should list all the types of backup tape and then have us do the research for you. Then you can collect donations (cash or hardware for accessing the data, or using the cash to purchase hardware to help aid you) so that you can back them up on your own free time, if you have any these days. If there are too many to count (I think you mentioned 15 different types at least), as someone else has said - start from the 80s first, since those are the most prone to rot at this time. There's a good chance they're long gone already, but there's always hope I suppose. Of course, I'm not an expert with this stuff, but to me - it's easier and safer this way. By the way, I'm not sure if you mentioned it or not, but do you have an idea of how far ACCLAIM would've gone to backup data on tape? I know Sega reused all their tapes over and over (they really weren't good at backing up thing to begin with, tbh). But from what I gather, since there are A LOT of tapes in this archive, they must've backed up entire workstations on tape as well. Also, have you thought about trying to use a recovery program to see if there might be some deleted data on the tape? My guess is since there are a lot of tapes, they probably never had to recycle/reuse a tape..
In my opinion you must send the tapes to someone who knows what he does but really the last word is sulla. These tapes protected for about 10 years and 30 years DDS3 or DDS4 formats DSS4
I could probably help making use of the equipment at the university to dump this tapes to a more friendly media. I should see first if we have all the necessary equipment at our disposal. Then again, I'm located in Uruguay so that would complicate things a bit... but I'd be glad to help.
I've got quite a few tape drives; external 100/200MB colorado drive, DDS3 tape drive from a rare CCTV-security PC, another DDS3 drive, DDS4 drive in server at the moment. I got a job lot of tapes marked 'BT', need to find them and see what's on them at some point.
It seems like in every post you make you berate Uruguay. Is it really that bad?:lol: Anyway on topic. Maybe a list of the different forms of tape trusted members could post if they have a medium that can read it.
:lol: Well, it is bad, not the worst, but bad for sure Anyway, what I meant was that my location could be a problem, as if I were to help, international shipping (and the risks of damage/loss, plus the $) would be a bit of an obstacle. But I am up for helping anyway! All that data should be processed to check how much redundancy there is (i bet there's a lot!), then dump it to some new media, and then share a list of contents which could be subject to a poll, to see what gets released (because releasing everything would be impossible).
Kev seems like a pretty busy guy. Asking him to work through this entirely by himself is basically asking for it never to see the light of day. Practically, then: what format are the 80s tapes? Who here has suitable hardware to recover them?
i think we should first see if we are are able to read the tapes. We need to know what kind of tapes there and what kind of Drives we need. I am sure there are some formats which are very old and it will be not so easy to find the right drive. Talking about how to distribute the data should come second.
Recovering data from tapes is a LOT more difficult than people think. Those that don't have direct experience with tape archiving probably shouldn't be involved (I say this as a neutral observer, I don't plan to get involved), it'd just be a waste of time and increase the risk of data loss in most cases. Sure maybe the tapes are from a UNIX system and were archived with 'mt' and 'tar', but there's a higher chance they're from Microsoft/Novell systems and were backed up with various ancient, unsupported and proprietary backup tools which will have to be tracked down.
Very true. I've had a few experiences with tapes, not so easy task, and not enough to be truly comfortable with them, but I can have access to both new and old equipment, and get help from some teachers if needed. What would definitely make the job easier would be to have a list of all the tapes with the respective types and archive system as for us to get an idea.
14TB is between $1400-5000 in data that means anyone who wants that much data is gonna have to buy a lot of removal media just to archive it all, and that's only if all the data still exist.
Where did you get those figures from? Besides, after one person gets all the data off and posts it, anyone can get it.
