Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!apple!well!rchrd
From: rchrd@well.UUCP (Richard Friedman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re:  Deteriorating Media
Keywords: ct, disk
Message-ID: <13518@well.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 89 21:23:31 GMT
References: <1082@neptune.AMD.COM>
Reply-To: rchrd@well.UUCP (Richard Friedman)
Organization: RCHRD 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley CA 94705
Lines: 27

In article <1082@neptune.AMD.COM> markl@neptune.AMD.COM (Mark Luedtke) writes:
>
>Question #1:
>Does anyone know of a way to get at the data on the tape (probably the better
>copy)?  RBAK dies at some location and will not find anything further, but if
>I could get it to start looking further down, I should be able to access the
>data.  An index, using RBAK, will pass the bad spot, but reading won't and
>using '-f cur' tells me that the current location is unknown.  Can I use RWMT
>in raw mode to build a file then RBAK from that file?  Any options at all
>for the tape?
>
Welcome to the unreal world of the small machines!  On all mainframe systems
there is a way to read tape ignoring (but flagging) errors, or to read past
partity errors, or some such thing.  As  far as I know and have seen there
is nothing like that available with RBAK (or tar)  This is very serious!
As you found out, you cant rely on your backups being readible!
Apollo really needs to address this problem with some sort of fail-safe
options on rbak or tar.

I suspect some of the high-powered users might have written their own
polish-off-the-tape-and-read programs of their own to replace rbak.
Anyone know of any???
-- 
 /s/ rchrd <=> Richard Friedman <=>  rchrd@well
 rchrd@well.sf.ca.us | {apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!rchrd
 [Pacific-Sierra Research / Berkeley CA] (415) 540-5216
 (The usual disclaimers apply - I speak only for myself!)