Hello folks. I have the following problem:

I'm trying to create a tape backup of a list of files on a 10 year old server, running SCO Openserver 5.0.5 (the tape drive is a Seagate STD224000N, connected as a SCSI drive).

I then want to restore the contents of this tape onto a new server running Ubuntu Server 11.04 (the tape drive is a Quantum (Seagate) CD72LWH-SST, connected as SCSI).

The tape I'm using is a DDS3 tape (brand new) as it is the only tape which will work in both drives.

So I'm using tar to send some stuff to the tape on the old server, using this command to do so:

Code:

tar cvf /dev/rStp0 /pecas/scripts/*

It seems happy to do this, and if I list what I just did on the tape using 'tar tvf /dev/rStp0', it shows me a list of the files.

So now I insert the tape into the new server, and I try to restore the tape's contents to the new drive with the command:

Code:

sudo tar xvf /dev/st0

Doing so results in the following errors:

Code:

tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Input/output error
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

If I try typing sudo mt -f /dev/st0 status I get the following:

Code:

drive type = 114
drive status = 620757504
sense key error = 0
residue count = 0
file number = 0
block number = 0

Also, not sure if this helps or means anything but if I type 'dmesg', some messages
seemingly related to sense errors appear towards the end of the file:

Code:

[  171.781113] st0: Block limits 1 - 16777215 bytes.
[  342.356086] st0: Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  342.356091] st0: ASC=0x3b <<vendor>> ASCQ=0xbf
[  397.977708] st0: Sense Key : Medium Error [current]

I've tried cpio as well, with the same results, whereby it seems to work fine
and list fine on the old server, but encounters read errors on the new server.
I'd be tempted to blame the tape, but it is brand new, and also that DDS2's
from the old server (which work fine on the old server) have similar input/output/'sense key' errors in a completely different server.

Apologies if this is seems rambling, I'm pretty much at a loss at where to go from here!
I read something about setting the
block size to something sensible, but I must admit I'm not great with tape-related stuff
and I couldn't figure it out. If anyone has any pointers, it would be great!