The only way to be absolutely sure that the data is unrecoverable is to De Gauss the tapes which removes the data by exposing it to very strong fluctuating electromagnetic radiations.
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Browse All TopicsWe need to recycle some old tapes (DLT4 and 4mm DAT). We use backup exec 11d long erase to get rid of the data on the tapes. Is this sufficient to destroy data before sending it off to a media recycling firm like: Recycleyourmedia.
We are trying to keep these tapes out of the landfills for a while and would like to use a software solution to ensure that the data is irretrievable.
Thanks
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A short erase simply overwrites the header information
A long erases the data on tape by writing all Zeros
And a degauss removes everything off the tape
On a tape , apart from the User data there is information written for the read/write head stepper movement
Erasing the tape does not hamper with the information
However a degauss would remove that too making the tape unusable both for a read and write
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by: PhilonatorPosted on 2009-11-05 at 13:29:44ID: 25754249
I have a friend who works in forensic recovery. He said if you erase a hard drive 7 times that he can't recover it. Not sure how that would apply to tapes. In the past I have long erased them and/or rewritten to them with bogus data just to ensure nothing is recoverable.