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sabk

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How to check the free space on tape ?

HI Experts,

I am taking the backup through Windows NTBackup.I want to check how many free space left on the tape? and how many space is in use?

Thanks in advance
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dovidmichel
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Just keep a record of how much data fits on a tape when it is full and then how much has been written to a tape to know how much more data can fit.

Some drives but not all will keep a record of how much space it left on tape and it is up to the application to obtain this from the drive.

However the drive makes this calculation based off the native capacity. For example a drive rated as 4/8gb will have a native capacity of 4gb when compression is not used. So when a gig is written to tape the drive reports 3gb free. Now through in compression and it all becomes a little more than meaningless. Now a gig is written and that gig is compressed to lets say 300mb but the next set of data may only compress to 800mb or may not compress at all if it is made up of mp3, jpg, avi or other such data.

Bottom line is that even in cases where the application does obtain the free space it is of little value.
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eagle0468

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