Old Tape Backup

[Danger Phoenix]

One of my Dad's clients has an old tape backup which we need to get into or copy the data off onto a computer.

Now the problem is that I know nothing about tape backups and I need to solve/work around two issues:

- we do not know what software was used to make these backups
- apparently there is a password on the tape

Where would I start with this?

 

[droyden]

Find out what type of tape it is and there for what type of hardware you need to get access to. Also, how important is the data, and how much can they spend to retrived it
You can send tapes off to companies who will retore, but mostly its at a premium price.

 

[Sp00n]

Try using ntbackup and do a catalog on the tape to see if it contains data.

I'm assuming you have the appropriate tape drive for the tape?

 

[PistolPete]

Do you know when the tape was created? You could look about for what the big backup softwares were at that time.

As for the password - I assume you know it - that may help you decide which software as some back then may not have supported passwords.

 

[iaind]

Odds are it's an ntbackup or veritas backup exec (maybe even seagate backup exec )

 

[Danger Phoenix]

The tapes are about 5-10 years old, and I have been told they were created on a Novell system - I know that doesn't help much.

I will get hold of the tapes tomorrow, so then I can tell you guys what type of tapes they are. I should be able to get hold of the reader too, but not 100% sure on that.

I do not know the password for the tapes, which is another issue...

 

[Sin_Chase]

Even if you find the software chances are you are going to need the session password also. Otherwise it's sending them off to a specialist.

 

[Danger Phoenix]

I haven't got the tapes yet, but I can confirm that they are around 5 years old.

Sin_Chase, when you say specialist, do you have a ball park figure of how much it would cost per tape?

 

[Lanz]

Im not sure you'll even be able to restore Novell volumes to a windows machine.

With an unknown password, it'll probably cost a fortune get the data back.

 

[Danger Phoenix]

I still haven't managed to find out what type of tapes they are, but I made a few calls and the general consensus is roughly £100 for a report on what is on one tape and then around £500 to get the data extracted.

I am not entirely sure how many tapes there are, so the costs could rise considerably, not making it financially worth it.

If the tapes are 5 years old, the chances are it will be a DAT tape right? How much are IDE/USB DAT tape readers nowadays? Will one type of DAT reader be able to read all DAT tapes?

 

[iaind]

Not necessarily - could be anything, 5 years isnt that old really

Have a look here for DDS compatibility:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...askId=101&prodSeriesId=81997&prodTypeId=12169

But as has been said, if it's a Novell volume and you don't know the tape password you'll be wasting your money even trying

 

[Danger Phoenix]

Great

iaind - would you mind explaining what difference does a Novell volume make? How is it different to lets say a Windows backup? If the data was readable, can it be restored to a hard disk and made bootable?

 

[Trojan]

I'm intrigued as to what kind of data these tapes contain. Why on earth does your dad's client not have a more recent backup?

 

[Danger Phoenix]

I'm intrigued as to what kind of data these tapes contain. Why on earth does your dad's client not have a more recent backup?

It is part of an "investigation" which involves examining old files, programs and backups. I rather not reveal more than that in a public forum. We are unsure whether these tapes are useful or not, so need to decide whether it is financially viable to get the data extracted.

 

[Danger Phoenix]

Would you mind explaining what difference does a Novell volume make? How is it different to lets say a Windows backup? If the data was readable, can it be restored to a hard disk and made bootable?

Anyone?

 

[seldNofSparta]

good luck! sounds like mission impossible to me

 

[jaybee]

Well you should start by finding out if there is any chance AT ALL of finding the password. If no, I would give up now if you don't have infinite budget for this.

 

[rz30]

a) Do you have the tapes yet
b) The tapes will have some kind of information on them such as make and model

This will basically tell you how to identify them and what reader to use

Secondly about the password, there is bound to be a way to crack it, i would be very suprised if you couldn't

 

[Danger Phoenix]

Still not managed to get them yet... hopefully tomorrow. Although I did find out that there are around 10 tapes, but they are just backups from different days. Ideally I only need to get into one of these.

 

[rz30]

I am no expert on tapes but ater a quick google to some forums post(2007) they say you can't pw protect a tape, you can encrpt the data though and you can also zip the data within the tape ad pw that.

So maybe you will be lucky and ntbackup will read it fine.