> IIRC, amrestore, having no idea about the original config ..., reads the
> 32KB amanda header (the 32768 offset noted above) to see if tar or dump
> was used and if compression was used.
>
> I'd look at that header.  You can use mt to position at the start of
> file 3 on the tape, then "dd" a 32K chunk (bs=32k count=1).
>
> Again, IIRC, amrestore has options to output the header only and to output
> the dump image in raw form in a file named ...RAW.  The latter would make
> no attempt to uncompress or unarchive the dump.  So you could use commands
> like "file" to determine the type of data in the raw image.

I'll need to investigate the correct syntax to fully test this -

However i just tried to restore onto another box that uses the same
autoloader as the machine that made the backup.

The restore worked without issue - I therefore think this is actually a
hardware issue with either the drive or cable.

thanks for the input

Tom