Secure Media Disposal

[villefort]

I am working on cycling out older/smaller 3590 tapes and replacing them with bigger 60GB tapes. I do not have a de-gaussing aparatus, but need some way to securily wipe the old tapes before they are decommissioned and sent where ever old tapes go. I don't need DOD-grade data wipe, just enough to actually remove the data on the tape.



Does anyone know if TSM (using Vers. 5.2.2) has a data-wipe capability? Or and AIX or 3494 mtlib command to not just 'mark' the tape as 'destroyed', but actually overlay/wipe the data from the physical tape volume?



Specs:

TSM Vers. 5.2.2

running on AIX 5+

Using 3494 tape library

With 3590 Tapes



Any help, pointers, tricks, or insights would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[sgabriel62]

Answer - Nope

Use the OS commands to erase the tapes - dd or mt usually does the trick

Run your script to insert either ones or zeros from start to finish. Its going to take some time.

Another option - use a degauser if you have one or get access to one.



Hope this helps

Steven

 

[gerardschlundt]

Some one please correct me if I am wrong, but I thoguht 3590 tapes couldn't be degaused since there was data written to the tape that the drive needs...separate from any user data.

 

[sgabriel62]

G

If the intention is not to re-use these tapes - then this user will find and implement the proper steps.

If the intention is to re-use the tapes - then inserting 1's or 0's at the OS level is the best but slowest option.