Replacing broken physical tapes

Products

• TLMS Tape Management
• Vtape Virtual Tape System

Issue/Introduction

Listed are a few options to recover a broken tape.

Environment

Release: TLMS..00200-12.6-TLMS-TAPE MANAGEMENT
Component:

Resolution

- Recall your duplex. Hopefully you have a duplex tape of all important information. Its good to check to make sure you have these from time to time on your valuable data. There are 2 ways to recall a duplex:

       - Uncatalog the primary copy so when you do the Recall it will not find it & then go to the duplex copy when you do the RECALL=vvvvvv (virtual volume)

       - SET RECALL=DUPLEX and then SVTn START RECALL=volser but for every recall then it will look for the duplex copy

Between these 2, the first method is preferable.

- If no duplex, you may be able to actually splice the pieces together. If they hold, data in front of the break should be readable, while the data after or until the next header may not be.

- In the same situation as the last method, data recovery software, FATS/FATAR from the company Innovation, should allow you to recover data beyond the break.

- Last resort, contact the tape manufacturers (IBM or STK) and see how much it will cost to recover it to a new cartridge. This might take a couple of weeks/months and at some cost.