Tape Data Recovery? Is It Easy To Perform

By Eddy K Elgin in Data Recovery on May 12th, 2008

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by Edmund Smith

In this 21st century, information technology has become a part of our lives, we simply can’t do without it. The usage of tape drive has virtually lost over to other media of storage. However, for those who are curious of what is tape data recovery. This article is for you. It is the recovery of any data that has been lost on a tape, obviously, but what it involves is quite interesting.

How can a tape cartridge be damaged? It can be damaged from smoke, dropping into the water, or simply just dropping from high levels. It can also be damaged from the exposure from the sun, extreme temperature, internal mechanism failure, and errors that are located found within the tape’s file span.

There are various cases of damages namely from water damage, missing oxide, folds in the tape, blade damage, bad oxide or even frictional damage, when tape data are being recovered. The fact that there are 2 types of tape data recovery, physical and logical recovery. Read on to find out more how you too can engage in the recovery techniques, if you are using tape as a storage medium.

What is actually physical tape data recovery?

It is needed from there is an actual physical damage to the tape. It can be something to do with the plastics or the cartridge that are preventing the data to be read properly.

Another reason for physical recovery can be due to the deterioration of magnetic coatings on the actual tape surface, broken or cracked wheels, twisted or folded tape, creased tape edges, broken tape, stretched tape, and etc.

Some trained technicians that are dealing in tape recovery guarantee a high recovery rate as high as 98 percent. With such high success rate, it is obvious they know what they are doing and are very good at what they do. Do you agree?

If you thought you have damaged your tape storage media by accidentally dropped it in the mud, water or simply from high level, then you should immediately stopped what you are doing and head to those tape recovery offices so that those recovery professionals can help you.

Logical recovery

Logical tape data recovery is more complicated than physical recovery, and is also more expensive than the normal recovery techniques.

We need logical recovery when the data is unable to read or write even though it has been successfully recorded onto the tape itself. Or there are no visible form of damage to the tape and the tape body itself.

In order for the technician to execute the recovery procedures properly, he has to use multiple versions of the tape recovery software and take many “passes” at the tape using it.

Using the recovery methods mentioned above, you can easily pieced back lost tape data. But the success rate of logical tape data recovery is much lower than the physical tape data recovery.

About the Author:

Edmund is the co-founder of many resource guides, owned by EKWW Global Marketing. He created a site, www.doctordatarecovery.com/ and found some data recovery techniques. Take a look at his expert review site now for more updates.