If you ARE thinking of copying old tape to new tapes - here are some thoughts!

1. if your old tapes are multiplexed you might want to look into copying them 
to a disk or VTL then to a tape, since the shoe shining you experience is 
horrible if you try to copy tape to tape, unless you keep the multiplexing.

2. I am copying some backups from 2006 (~ 3 years old), and experiencing some 
increased failure rates, as well as drive issues with these tapes that have sat 
at iron mountain for 3 years. 

3. Plan on it taking some time! AND those drives not being available during 
that time!

>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 12
>Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:58:14 -0400
>From: Jorge F?bregas <jorge.fabregas AT gmail DOT com>
>Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Transition from LTO1 to LTO4
>To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>Message-ID: <200908221558.15149.jorge.fabregas AT gmail DOT com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
>> Have you looked at your data to see if it's feasible to keep your old 
>> library long enough to duplicate your long-term retention data to LTO4 
>> and then get rid of the LTO1s when you've duped everything that hasn't 
>> already expired?
>
>That sounds like a nice mini-project.  I totally agree and will look forward 
>for doing it. The fact that I can consolidate, at least, about (8) LTO1 tapes 
>into (1) LTO4 tape is pretty tempting!
>
>> This may well reopen up another favorite topic: retention and the 
>> costs/logic/risks in keeping and trusting the usefulness and recoverability 
>> of old data.
>
>I Agree :)
>
>All the best,
>Jorge
>
>
>------------------------------

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