> 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