Can DDS3 Tapes be Read by DDS4 Tape Drive? Closed/Issue Resolved.

[Laputa]

Nevermind, found out that these 4 tapes are indeed blank! Thank you guys!

RE>
Here's the situation:

I got 4 older tapes contains data backups and they are all DDS3. Assuming they will work with the DDS4 tape reader, which I have the HP SureStore DAT40. I just tested with these tapes, but the problem is, all 4 of the tapes appear to be blank when I test them. The tape unit seems to recognize the tapes, but thinks these tapes are blank.

My question is do I need a DDS3 reader for this just for the heck of it or something had happened to these tapes? From HP, it said it should read DDS 1-4 fine. Which makes me think that these 4 tapes somehow got switched or something else happened to them. So the 2nd question is are there any good tape imaging utility so that I can at least do a RAW recovery if the tape got degraded? Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[RebateMonger]

DDS4 drives should read DDS3 tapes.

Hopefully the quality of the DDS3 backups was being periodically tested. Online backup companies are quick to argue that something like 50% of all tape backups are defective, for lots of reasons. Almost every time I see a tape drive at a new client, it's either non-functional or the backups aren't configured correctly.

John Cleese's famous, "The Trauma of Data Backup", a parody of tape drive failures.

Hopefully, his will put you in a good mood. I imagine that's a problem right now.

The major data recovery houses, like Ontrack, offer tape data recovery services.

 

[cubby1223]

You need to use the same software to read the tapes as was used to write the tapes. Is there a desperate need to read the tapes?

 

[Laputa]

It's the same software all right, BackupExec. Anyway, thanks for the response. I think these tapes never got any data on them. The real problem was they were never used for the backup eventhough they got the right labels on them. I was trying to archive the data on them if there are anything on them, but I guess I don't have to do that at this point. I checked the tape with another imaging software and which saids they are blank. So it's definitely pointless to image 4 blank tapes and then find out there are not data on them. Thank you guys!

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Laputa
It's the same software all right, BackupExec. Anyway, thanks for the response. I think I checked the tape with another imaging software and which saids they are blank. So it's definitely pointless to image 4 blank tapes and then find out there are not data on them.

That's what happened with my last tape-based "recovery". The client had all four of their servers and their tape drive stolen on a Sunday afternoon. There were four tapes left. One tape had some system files on it. The other three appeared blank. I talked to Ontrack about doing a restore from the blank tapes, but the business owner admitted that it was likely that there was NOTHING on the tapes.

They lost ALL the company's data that was on the server.