topic Manage the tape in Operating System - Linux

Manage the tape

heaman1 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:46:11 GMT

I have a tape drive that attached to the server , I use mt command could manage it , tar command to write data to it , could advise if I want to format the tape , or erase the data in the tape , what can i do ? thx

Re: Manage the tape

Dennis Handly — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:33:53 GMT

Typically you can only overwrite the data that is already there or degauss it.

Re: Manage the tape

Matti_Kurkela — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:10:39 GMT

To destroy the old data on the tape without putting in any meaningful new data, there are several options:

Overwrite with zero bytes:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ bs=10240

Overwrite with random bytes (slower):

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/ bs=10240

Adjust the bs= (blocksize) parameter to match the preferred block size of your tape drive type.

But if you have a magnetic tape degausser device, just put the tape in/on the degausser device and switch it on. The strong magnetic field will erase the data from the entire tape all at once. This is the fastest way to erase all data from a tape.

MK