Tar: tape error (5)

[Jerry_109]

Hello All,

I continously receive the follwoing error:
"Tar: tape error (5)"
When attempting to extract files from DDS4 tape.
Command used to place files on tape:
tar -cvf /dev/rmt/0mn /u00

Command used to extract files from tape:
tar -xvf /dev/rmt/0m /u00

Pleae advise, I have cleaned the tape drive,
and checked my cable connections. I will restore different amount of files, each time I try.

Jerry Sims

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Could be a bad tape.

Could be a hardware issue with the tape drive itself.

ioscan -fnC tape

Make sure it shows up claimed, It probably is.

try firing up cstm, mstm or xstm and run some diagnostics on the tape device. The hardware may need replacement.

Also, try extracting files off a different tape, to rule out or in a tape problem.

SEP

[Hoang Chi Cong_1]

Hi Jerry

Why don't you use 0mn instead of 0m?
As you said you can tar the /u00 to the tape so that I recommend use:
First, rewind the tape:
mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn -rew
Then:
tar -xvf /dev/rmt/0mn /u00

Yes, you should try to restore in a different directory....

Goodluck!
Regard,
Hoang Chi Cong

[Tony Scully_2]

Jerry,

Was the data written to the tape from the same server you are trying to restore to? I think err number 5 is a checksum error, so pretty much a catch all error. Are you certain that the tar to write the tape suceeded, as Steven mentioned, wel worth trying to write another tape to eliminate the drive itself.
T

[Bill Hassell]

Error 5 is Unix errno 5, which is always a hardware error. For tapes, it means that the tape drive was unable to read the data sucessfully. It means that there is a bad spot on the tape. There isn't much you can do other than using a cleaning tape and trying again. tar has no error recovery mechanism so all files beyond the bad spot are lost. If a different number of files are restored each time and cleaning does not help, it's time to replace the drive.

[Jerry_109]

Hello all,

Thanks for all the information. I found the problem, I forgot to put my terminator
on. tar extraction works fine.

[Tony Scully_2]

I've done that a few times!

Tony