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Tape Restore

My company used to have an old Tandberg drive which can backup 15/30gb of data. I presume that it is a DLT2000XT drive but i'm not too sure because i just joined the company and the drive is already not around anymore. Though the drive is no longer in use, we kept the tapes containing our monthly backup. Right now, my boss wants to restore one of the monthly backup. Problem is i tried the tapes on DLT4000, DLT7000 and DLT8000, both backupexec 9.1 and ntbackup and all of them showed the tapes as blank media. Is there any application out there that i can extract the data out with?
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symbios2
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symbios2
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pjedmondCommented:
This is a data recovery nightmare - not having the original hardware or documentation/software relating to the backup process itself available. Unfortunately, header information that states what is on the drive will be different for different drives/backup software etc. Also it is difficult to know if the tapes were verified as having been written, (why did the original drive get thrown away - broken? etc)

Best bet is try and find someone that has exactly the same tape drive, or try and get a second hand one from ebay or similar. You will also need to try and find out the original software used as backup software often uses different compression mechanisms. Otherwise, you'll probably need to try out a datarecovery service of some sort!

Sorry but it's all bad news, especially if it turns out that a form of data compression, or worse still a password was used:(
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pjedmondCommented:
Possibly worth a look on ebay to see if you can find a DLT2000XT - They turn up occassionally. Also there are some specialist refurbishment companies that deal with this type of stuff depending where in the world you are.
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mozcakirCommented:
which backup software did you use when you backed up the data ?  thats also important.

regards

mozcakir
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dovidmichelCommented:
According to the Quantum tape compatibility chart all three of you drives are both read and write compatible with the DLT 2000XT, so you do not need another drive.

Here is a link to a program that might help. It reads just about anything.  
http://www.emaglink.com/MMPC.htm

If it fails then check to see how important the data is to see if it is worth it to use a data recovery service.

In general tapes are good for 10 to 30 years but that is when they are kept in the proper environment. Things like temp. (below 32 above 65) can drastically reduce the life of a tape.
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