Format DLT tape and detect tape drive

[SimonPeh]

Greetings,

Just checking if I reuse one of the tape that contains data and want to do a ufsdump over it. Does it overwrite it or do you need to do a format of the tape ? Is there a command for formatting in Unix for tape ?

And how do I know which devices is for the tape drive. for example/ /dev/rmt/0n.

 

[guggach]

no need of format, this is a raw device.
try: man mt

guggach

 

[SimonPeh]

You mean it is ok not to format the tape even when there is something already written in it ?

I think I will do a "mt erase" to erase whatever is in the tape b4 I do a ufsdump in a script.
hopefully it wont take too long to do a mt erase.

regards
SP

 

[KenCunningham]

Make sure you rewind it first: mt -f /dev/rmt/<tape> rewind

 

[KenCunningham]

erase takes forever - don't bother.

 

[daFranze]

depending on what drive wrote the tape, the tape may be unusable; Tapes written by DLT 8000 Drives are initialized by the drive and cannot be used by DLT 7000 or older drives, the drive will not recognize the tape quality (type IV tapes eg.) and will rewind and ask for removing (generate some sound)

Best Regards, Franz
--
Solaris System Manager from Munich, Germany
I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years