Keith,

You can just erase them as stated below, but there is one thing to 
consider.  The performance you get out of the tape will depend on the type 
of drive that the tape was used in first.  A DLT2000 tape drive had a 
different segment size (or is it fragment size?) then a DLT8000.  Also, a 
VSTape formatted tape can not be used in a DLTx000 drive. 

I found that the tapes formatted by an older drive could take about twice 
as long to read and write to.  The end result is if you degauss the tapes, 
they will be formatted by your current drive, and you should get the best 
performance out of the tapes.


Message: 10
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:42:00 -0400
From: "Justin Piszcz" <jpiszcz.backup at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] DLT Format Issues
To: "Keith W" <keith at cydonia.net>
Cc: Veritas List <veritas-bu at mailman.eng.auburn.edu>
Message-ID:
 <8cf000000704301342h7965c336l2d87b329a324eb89 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

You should be able to check off the overwrite options in NBU though
and that should take care of it.

On 4/30/07, Justin Piszcz <jpiszcz.backup at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd go for the erase, depends on the DLT version perhaps(?) but for
> LTO-X tapes, they say right on the package NOT to degauss as a measure
> of erasure.
>
> On 4/27/07, Keith W <keith at cydonia.net> wrote:
> > I have a hundred or so DLT IV tapes that were in a different/unknown
> > tape stacker. I need to get them cleaned up so that my Overland 
machine
> > will properly see them. Will a simple erase (mt -f /dev/st0 erase) 
clean
> > them up enough to be seen by the newer DLT tape machine or do I need 
to
> > have them degaused?
> >
> > +-----------------------+
> > +       Keith           +
> > +-----------------------+
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu at mailman.eng.auburn.edu
> > http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
> >
>



Richard Mickle
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