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- From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
- Subject: Re: Reading TK-70 tapes after /REWIND
- Date: 22 Dec 1992 06:02:24 GMT
- Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
- Lines: 43
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <1h6b1gINN9ks@gap.caltech.edu>
- References: <01GSKWNYOHZ6004HMW@GW.AGR.CA>
- Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
- NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu
-
- In article <01GSKWNYOHZ6004HMW@GW.AGR.CA>, YOUNG@SKRSSA.AGR.CA ("Saskatoon Res. Stn. -- System Manager") writes:
- >Hello Info-vax people!
- >
- > I have a user that owns a TK-70 tape that has many savesets on it,
- >with the last saveset mistakenly written with the /REWIND qualifier! He
- >really wants to keep all savesets on the tape. This was obviously a mistake.
- >
- >We know that the first and second original savesets have likely been
- >overwritten, however would like to retrieve the remaining savesets from the
- >tape. To date I have had no success getting past the first saveset on the
- >tape that was put on using the /REWIND. There is alot of data left on the
- >tape, and I would really like to be able to get at it.
- >
- >Does anyone have any experience with this problem or ideas on a solution?
-
- First the good news: I've had experience with that situation.
- Now the bad news: There's no solution (probably).
-
- A "feature" of TK50s is that they won't read past a parity error. When you
- wrote the saveset with the /REWIND qualifier, it put an end-of-file mark at the
- end of the saveset. That end-of-file mark almost certainly overlaps subsequent
- data in such a way as to produce a parity error (I don't know why; it's just a
- property of TK50s).
-
- Now, in the (extremely unlikely) case where you *DON'T* get a parity error, you
- can either write your own program or use a combination of SET MAGTAPE/SKIP and
- DUMP to advance past the end-of-volume mark (two successive end-of-file marks)
- on the tape, and, if you've mounted the tape /FOREIGN with appropriate values
- for /BLOCKSIZE and /RECORDSIZE, you can COPY the rest of the
- partially-overwritten saveset to disk, and you can, after using SET MAG/SKIP
- and DUMP or equivalent, use BACKUP/NOREWIND to retrieve the data from
- subsequent savesets.
-
- E-mail me for details if you *DON'T* get a parity error, or if you need more
- detailed instructions for trying to skip past the end-of-volume mark.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL
-
- Disclaimer: Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS. That's what I get paid for. My
- understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below). So
- unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
- organization responsible for it. If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
- hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
-