Restore iSeries tape
Can I restore data on the tape ULTRIUM3 after I run INZTAP comand with CLEAR(*NO)?[Br _extended="true" />[Br _extended="true" />
Software/Hardware used:
[Br _extended="true" />OS400 V5R4M0, IBM eServer
Software/Hardware used:
[Br _extended="true" />OS400 V5R4M0, IBM eServer
ASKED:
March 2, 2010 12:02 PM
UPDATED:
December 10, 2010 9:15 AM
Answer Wiki:
It is highly unlikely that anything exists on the tape. INZTAP initialized the tape the CLEAR(*NO) said do not erase the complete tape. There is data on the tape drive but the Tape Allocation Table has been wiped clean. The only ones that I think could do this is IBM.
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This is mostly my opinion, partially generated from my own experimentation over the years…
I believe that it is technically possible but highly impractical.
The data blocks of the tapefiles should still be physically on the tape. However, you would need to retrieve them and place them on another tape that had the correct tape- and file-headers all set in whatever way would be acceptable to the save/restore process.
Tapefiles are “files” after all — TAPF. You can read from them as well as write to them. Labels and headers can also be read and written. The real tricks are first in understanding the relationships between items like “Label processing type”, “Record block format” and other specs and the physical blocks of data on the tapes. Then comes understanding of the particular tape recording technology itself, e.g., “streaming tape”.
The point is that this is a highly specialized area. You can do it yourself after a lot of experimentation or contact some recovery service. Experimentation might start with a DSPTAP command, followed by DMPTAP and then possibly the CPYFRMTAP command specifying FROMREELS(*UL), etc.
When reading from such a tape, you would normally work as if the tape was “unlabeled”. That’s one potential way of reading label elements as “file” blocks. But it will depend on how ‘intelligent’ the tape controller is. Technology often decides what’s best for us, and it runs according to its rules rather than according to how we want it to run.
Tom
I agree. From the application perspective the tape is blank, so no you cannot “restore” data from the tape. However a data recovery service can get the data back.
‘*UL ‘ not valid for parameter FROMREELS.
Should be *NL not *UL.
Should be *NL not *UL
Yep. My organic ECC memory missed a linkage there. I should’ve actually looked at a command prompt.
Tom
If the tape is being initialized, any previous data on the tape can also be deleted but not totally deleted.If you read the details of Clear (*No) it says:
*NO: The existing data is not deleted. Even though the existing data is not deleted, the data on the volume is not accessible after the volume has been initialized.
I think you need IBM for data recovery.