Michael Mientus wrote:

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On erasing the tapes I do not have a degaussers to use to erase them

Good, if you use a degausser then you might permanently damage the tapes. I would just stick to their request and write 0s to the tapes.

yep, some tapes have formatting info hardwritten in them, a degausser would kill them jdd -- Jean-Daniel Dodin Président du CULTe www.culte.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:17 PM, Michael Mientus wrote:

Good, if you use a degausser then you might permanently damage the tapes. I would just stick to their request and write 0s to the tapes.

Are you aware of any tape that relies on some residual formatting marks that a degausser would destroy which the drive could not re-establish? -- ----------JSA--------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:33 PM, Evens Garde wrote:

John Andersen wrote:

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On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:17 PM, Michael Mientus wrote:

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Good, if you use a degausser then you might permanently damage the tapes. I would just stick to their request and write 0s to the tapes.

Are you aware of any tape that relies on some residual formatting marks that a degausser would destroy which the drive could not re-establish?

Many tape system have/require timing marks that are maintained despite whatever data is written on them. --

But all of those I've seen have the ability to re-establish these marks as would be necessary when you buy new raw tapes. -- ----------JSA--------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 3:29 PM, John Andersen wrote:

Are you aware of any tape that relies on some residual formatting marks that a degausser would destroy which the drive could not re-establish?

No I am not. I just wanted to warn Jack that degaussing the tapes might destroy him. And he was only asked to erase them. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

John Andersen wrote:

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:31 PM, Evens Garde wrote:

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Our company has been offered this tape library free with 200 tapes to do with it. All they are asking is for me to erase the tapes. Why doesn't the donor erase the tapes? If it's that important that they be erased, and I were in

Jack Malone wrote: their position, I would make sure all sensitive data is erased BEFORE turning the tapes over to someone else.

My company has served as a consultant to many small firms that did not have the technical know how to do this. One of these companies offered us an entire server (a fairly substantial machine) for no money if we would promise to wipe the drives.

In such an instance, I would be hiring a consultant firm to set up the system to erase the tapes, and THEN give them away.

Its not that uncommon to leave this task to a trusted contractor.

This doesn't sound like leaving it to a trusted contractor... it sounds like leaving it to the recipient. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

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"John Andersen" 6/5/2008 3:47 PM >>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Evens Garde wrote:

This doesn't sound like leaving it to a trusted contractor... it sounds like leaving it to the recipient.

Jack may fill both roles for all we know. I plan at the moment to just erase them seeing as a degasser from my googling runs from $1500 to $2000. I'm wanting to know if the drive will be useable with SUSE before I spend time driving across town an getting it an bringing it back an setting it up. I have to make room for it on my server room also. I'm wondering if anyone on the list here has use this one or one similar with SUSE Linux an what software you would use. My new setup here I have SLES on my two new servers setup as a xen host for some virtual machines an need a reliable way to back or data. I do not much more then 300 gigs of data right now but have 1.8 terabyte of drive space on the San I have. thanks -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

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"John Andersen" 6/5/2008 4:00 PM >>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:56 PM, Jack Malone wrote:

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"John Andersen" 6/5/2008 3:47 PM >>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Evens Garde wrote:

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This doesn't sound like leaving it to a trusted contractor... it sounds like leaving it to the recipient.

Jack may fill both roles for all we know.

I plan at the moment to just erase them seeing as a degasser from my googling runs from $1500 to $2000.

I'm wanting to know if the drive will be useable with SUSE before I spend time driving across town an getting it an bringing it back an setting it up. I have to make room for it on my server room also. I'm wondering if anyone on the list here has use this one or one similar with SUSE Linux an what software you would use. My new setup here I have SLES on my two new servers setup as a xen host for some virtual machines an need a reliable way to back or data. I do not much more then 300 gigs of data right now but have 1.8 terabyte of drive space on the San I have.

If the title of this thread refers to the actual unit, then the web page about this device states it does work under various unixs. However, you are going to need an interface card (scsi?) and that card may be the sticking point if its proprietary. So see if the card is supported by SLES, and your hardware. I got the StorageTek[ TimberWolf 9714 off of the paper the guy gave me. I knew it would take a scsi card an will find out next week which one it takes. I do have a hardware manuel on it from the sun website. I will look for an see if it has the type of card it needs. I plan to ask them what they used for software also. I might get some dell 2950 servers from them also, they are an energy company , gas / oil that upgrades their hardware every 3 years an looks for a non profit to pass the old stuff onto. I'm not sure how old the tape library is but the server are only 3 years old. I googled StorageTek[ TimberWolf 9714 an found out that sun now owns storageTek, but the library itself is end of life from what I read on the website. thanks for the info jack -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

2008/6/5 Jack Malone :

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"John Andersen" 6/5/2008 3:47 PM >>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Evens Garde wrote:

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This doesn't sound like leaving it to a trusted contractor... it sounds like leaving it to the recipient.

Jack may fill both roles for all we know.

I plan at the moment to just erase them seeing as a degasser from my googling runs from $1500 to $2000.

I'm wanting to know if the drive will be useable with SUSE before I spend time driving across town an getting it an bringing it back an setting it up. I have to make room for it on my server room also. I'm wondering if anyone on the list here has use this one or one similar with SUSE Linux an what software you would use. My new setup here I have SLES on my two new servers setup as a xen host for some virtual machines an need a reliable way to back or data. I do not much more then 300 gigs of data right now but have 1.8 terabyte of drive space on the San I have.

thanks

-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Hi, "mt -f /dev/st0 erase" should do the job.... Ciro -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Per Jessen wrote:

Jack Malone wrote:

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I'm wanting to know if the drive will be useable with SUSE before I spend time driving across town an getting it an bringing it back an setting it up. I have to make room for it on my server room also.

I used to write software for StorageTek - I feel pretty certain those drives will work fine, but without knowing the actuial drive-types, I can't guarantee it.

Just checked, the 9714 is a plain DLT library - the drives are most probably not STK-manufactured but OEM'ed. I don't think you'll have any problems getting it to work. /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

John Andersen wrote:

Its not that uncommon to leave this task to a trusted contractor.

true. If not most company whould better destroy the material. However I was once given (with no instruction) a computer from I know who, and it was full of porno video and she would have been quite woried if I had been unfair (I removed all this without comment :-)) jdd -- Jean-Daniel Dodin Président du CULTe www.culte.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org