[lug] tape questions

[Calvin Dodge]

I _do_ have a couple of questions for y'all - that backup thread reminded me of
them.

1)  We have an Exabyte 8505 (uses 5 gig 112m 8mm tapes) which ate a couple of
tapes within a 3 week period (including the middle tape of a multi-tape
backup), so it has been suspended from normal duty.  We _have_ run the cleaning
tape through it, and can only surmise that something else is causing the drive
to grab the tape.

Can anyone recommend a competent service center in Boulder which could tell us
IF the drive is fixable?

2) As I mentioned in the backup thread, I'm using a Sony autoloader tape drive
with a script modified from one in "Linux System Administration".  Saves run
without incident, and I can tell tar to read the entire archive without
problems (about a 2 1/2 hour job each way).  BUT ... when I tell tar to compare
the archive to the current drive I get the following error (early on in the
compare process, but after it has checked the /etc and /home directories):

tar: Skipping to next file header
tar: À,: No such file or directoryy
tar: Skipping to next file header
tar: Archive contains `"\001\322+;"' where numeric time_t value expected
tar: Archive contains `"\000"' where numeric mode_t value expected
tar: Archive contains `"\001\322+;"' where numeric time_t value expected
tar: ÀB: No such file or directory
tar: Skipping to next file header


This happens regardless of the tape I try, and it's really puzzling, since I
_can_ tell tar to simply read the entire archive from tape.

For the record, the backup and restore script (abbreviated here) is:

export TAPE=/dev/st0
cd /
tar --create --atime-preserve \
         --file $TAPE --sparse  --files-from /etc/backup_these 
tar --compare  --file $TAPE 


Can anyone shed some light on this problem?  Thanks!

Calvin


-- 
"Hey feller!
I bet you're still living in your parents' cellar
Downloading pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And posting 'me too!' like some brain-dead AOLer"

- "It's All About The Pentiums"