ista_na
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Backup Tape tracking software
Historically we've been typing down tape numbers into an excel spreadsheet when we send our backup tapes offsite. This is both time consuming and prone to error. So I bought a little handheld USB scanner from Symbol and am looking for a free or inexpensive piece of software to record the dates and barcodes of the tapes that we scan in.
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Some barcode readers come bundled with software that has macro facilities - have you checked the capabilities of your Symbol unit?
Are you using a standalone tape drive, or an autoloader/library with barcode reader support? Having a barcode reader built in to the library not only means quicker initialiazations (how long it takes to come up from 'off' or an open door), but also means that the backup application can keep track of this for you automatically.
ASKER
It's a library autoloader and yes DPM reads the labels. But the software can't tell me which tapes I send offsite on which dates.
> It's a library autoloader and yes DPM reads the labels. But the software
> can't tell me which tapes I send offsite on which dates.
Consider changing backup software to something more capable, then. A decent backup application will track when you export a tape, and tell you which tape you need to perform a particular restore.
> can't tell me which tapes I send offsite on which dates.
Consider changing backup software to something more capable, then. A decent backup application will track when you export a tape, and tell you which tape you need to perform a particular restore.
So I used the barcode reader to enter the tapes into a spreadsheet...