Hi, Hana.
Yes, you can read the tape. However, recovering files from the data you
read will be so difficult that recovery is infeasible.
You will have to mount the tape, then use some kind of utility to read
the tape to a big file. In UNIX, we would use dd. I have no idea what
similar utilities exist for Windows. Here is an excerpt from a document
I had to write up for management once upon a time.
Once the tape has been read to file, the file will then have to be
processed to extract individual files. There is no utility that does
this -- it will be a manual process. If text files are targeted, this
could be fairly simple. Non-text files, for example, .docs, .xls, .pdf,
.jpg, etc, will be significantly more difficult. Someone would have to
manually identify file begin and end points. If done incorrectly, the
file will not be read correctly by MSWord, Adobe, etc. If an individual
file spans file aggregates, then they will have to be manually appended
- again, correctly. A disk recovery utility may help as they do similar
reconstruction from disk blocks, but a low success rate would be
expected. If client compression or encryption are enabled, it will be
nearly impossible to figure out how to decompress/decrypt the files. A
data recovery service may be able to extract more data, but such
services are expensive. Cost benefit analysis weighing the recovery
cost, file type, and likelihood of failure against the value of the data
will determine the feasibility of a recovery attempt.
For a fun example of this process, put a .jpg, .doc, and .pdf file into
a directory. From the command prompt, "type" each file and append it to
a test file like so:
c:\test> type file.jpg > testfile
c:\test> type file.doc >> testfile
c:\test> type file.pdf >> testfile
Then use a hex editor to open testfile and see how much fun it is to try
to separate them. And that's with the advantage of knowing what's
there. It gets much harder with fragmented file aggregates.
The only reason TSM can read the tape is because the database knows
where all the file segments start and stop.
So, yes, while it is possible to read the data from tape, it will be
prohibitively expensive/difficult to recover the data in a usable
format.
I hope this answers your question.
________________________________
Alex Paschal
Storage Solutions Engineer
MSI Systems Integrators
________________________________
Your Business. Better.
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Hana Darzi
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 5:31 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] reading tape wirthout tsm
Hello,
That was my question can I read this files without tsm and how???
Win2003
Lib scalar i500
Lto3 with compression tapes
Thank you, hana
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Richard Sims
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 2:39 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] reading tape wirthout tsm
On Feb 11, 2009, at 7:26 AM, Hana Darzi wrote:
>
> Can I read TSN backup/archive client tape without tsm database.
>
> I need delete archive files that maybe on the tape, and I do not have
>
> Database .
>
> Is it any utility?
You might be able to physically read data from TSM tapes, depending
upon tape vs. drive compatibilities, compression, and encryption; but
you'd be hard-pressed to identify the right tape to read, or position
to the right spot.
Tapes are not like disks: you don't delete files from within them.
TSM expires data by eliminating its knowledge of file locations on
tapes, but the data stays on the tapes until the tapes are re-used.
If you need to wipe data from a tape, your choices are to write over
the tape or physically destroy the tape.
Richard Sims
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