> But when I try to actually read a tape I get errors > Here are examples of the tape read commands, there are many variations one > can try: > dd if=/dev/nst0 of=block1.bin > dd if=dev/nst0 of /dev/null bs=1024 > etc
> I would open a 2nd window and run the following command to view the system > messages while the dd program is running > dmesg | tail -50 > result example: > [ 1802.404408] st0: Failed to read 1326 byte block with 1024 byte transfer. > [ 1813.881884] st0: Failed to read 3846 byte block with 1024 byte transfer Two things: 1. If you `setblk 0` and use a large enough ibs= with dd, it'll read variable block sizes just fine. 2. DON'T ARCHIVE VARIABLE BLOCKED TAPES WITH DD!!!! It throws away information. Use a tool that preserves the block sizes. E.g.: https://github.com/brouhaha/tapeutils De
