> From: "Tim Duncan" <Tduncan AT imcpl DOT org>
> To: <veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu>
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] cannot read media header
> 
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> 
> I have a SDLT tape that according to the netbackup catalog contains
> netbackup images,=20
> When ever I try to read the media's content I receive the 
> error  "Error
> from master server. Cannot read media header , may not be Netbackup
> media or corrupt.=20
> 
> I have worked with Veritas tech support, but they have offered no
> solution to recoverying the data on this tape. I suspect the media
> header is corrupt but the images are still on the tape. Any
> recommendation or soultions to recoverying the data off this tape will
> be appreciated. =20

Tim - you can get creative with tools to try to figure out what, if
anything, is on this tape.

vmphyinv to see if it's a catalog or data tape or unknown.  bprecover -l
to see if it's a catalog tape.  Assuming no joy with those, you can use
mt and {dd|cp|copy|whatever} to copy the first (or more) file off the
tape (just to make them easier to work with) and see what it looks like
(send it to GNU tar, or cpio, or od, or ...).  File sizes are a good
clue--and matchable against frag sizes recorded in the catalog metadata.


A NetBackup label's content is very obvious (1HDR, tape number,
NetBackup magic text string) but you already know the first file isn't
that or you wouldn't be asking the question.  

If there is at least the start of a NetBackup image on the tape, it's
readable with tar.

If this really was a NetBackup tape (not doubting you, but consider that
the barcode could be physically swapped, for instance), and something
wrote to the tape at BOT, the chances are slim that you can recover data
from whatever used to be at the front of the tape.