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Re: HP Storageworks DAT 40 USB

 
Brian Jermain
New Member

HP Storageworks DAT 40 USB

This DAT drive was attached to an Windows Small Business Server 2003 some considerable time ago.

It has been lying in the cupboard together with the final series of tapes. I have now been asked to try and recover some of the personal files on these tapes.

As I no longer have the server, operating system etc and have no idea what software was used to create the tapes (although I would assume it was SBS 2003 backup)

Where do I start - or am I wasting my time. I do have a spare PC that I could set up any way I want but I really would like some advice as to where I should be going having never used DAT tapes before

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks
2 REPLIES 2
thomas rush
Frequent Advisor

Re: HP Storageworks DAT 40 USB

Well, if it was done with the simple backup application that ships with Windows Server, I'd expect tapes from one version to be compatible with more recent versions of the application... so boot up a server, attach the tape drive, fire up NT Backup, and see if you can "import" the tapes. This will read the catalog on the tape and allow you to restore either the whole tape or just certain files.

DO NOT FORMAT OR ERASE THE TAPE.

If that doesn't work, see if you can contact the previous sys admin and get a clue as to what backup application was used. You'll need a version of that backup compatible with the version used to write the tape.

One other possibility -- since this was an HP DAT drive, if it was used with most HP servers and any of several backup applications, you *may* be able to perform a boot from tape. NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE

NOTE WELL!

1) Boot from tape, or One Button Disaster Recovery, will overwrite all contents of the server you're using it on. It's designed for disaster recovery, not single-file restore.
2) Boot from Tape requires the same HW that the tape was run on. So... you can't make a disaster recovery tape on a ProLiant DL360 G4 and expect to recover it on a DL360 G5.
3) They might not have created the tape in the first place with the boot from tape option, in case it won't work at all.

If you've run out of other options and want to give One Button Disaster Recover a try, see (and read well the cautions) instructions at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/drs/qa.html#3 (search HP.Com for "OBDR").

And la$t... if you really need the file$ on the$e tape$, there are $ervice$ which, for a fee, will read ju$t about anything.
Brian Jermain
New Member

Re: HP Storageworks DAT 40 USB

Thomas

Thanks for the detailed response I think Iwill try and arrange to install Windows server 2003 on the PC that I have and see if the tape drive can be attached and read using NTbackup

Thanks once again

Brian