[ale] tar input-output error

[Allan Metts]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a Quantum LTO-3 tape drive, and have taken several hundred gigabytes of data off-line as follows:

[root at cello ~]# mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
[root at cello ~]# tar cvpf /dev/st0 * >& write.log
[root at cello ~]# tar tvpf /dev/st0  >& verify.log

I compare the two logs, and everything looks great.


A few weeks or days later, I try to look at the tapes again....

[root at cello ~]# mt -f /dev/st0 status
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 512 bytes. Density code 0x44 (no translation).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (45010000):
 BOT WR_PROT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

[root at cello ~]# tar tvpf /dev/st0
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Input/output error
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now


Repeating mt status after this failure still shows the soft error count of zero.

This seems to have happened with all of my tape volumes -- which were captured on different days, and stored in different places for different periods of time.  So I don't think the same giant magnet destroyed them or anything. Most recently, I offloaded to tape, ejected the tape remotely (but left it in the drive), came back a few days later, reinserted the tape, and got the error.  The fact that this tape never changed environments should eliminate thermal considerations, I'd think.

I'm hoping it's something stupid on my part.  Anyone know how I can get my data off of these $100 tapes using my $3,000 tape drive?

Allan