Tape Data Recovery

Water can damage the tape which can lead to data loss if untreated for too long. If your tape contains important data, you should be aware this could be lost. Do not attempt to fix your tape from water damage, such as from heat or freezing your tape, as this is likely to only decrease the chance of data restoration. Instead, contact a data recovery specialist such as Ontrack, who can recover almost all your data by using their specialist equipment to dry the tape and read its content. 

Even if you treat your tapes with great care, they can still get dusty over time as the tape’s magnetic layer attracts dust. But, if you use a dirty tape, you risk damaging the read/write head or destroying the data on the tape, due to the dust rubbing on the surface. To solve this problem, clean the tape using alcohol or a cleaning cartridge. Alternatively, use specialist machinery which removes dust and dirt by running special cleaning pads over both sides of the belt. If you choose to clean the tape yourself, be aware that opening the case is not without risk and should only be done by an experienced professional, especially as the mechanism inside is sometimes more complicated than it looks.

It all depends on the extent of the damage. Either way, you should contact a tape data recovery expert. They will have the necessary tools to recover both the tape and the data. If only the tape’s casing was damaged by the fire, it is sometimes possible to take a new or used product, disassemble it, swap the strips, and put everything back in the cartridge. If the tape itself has been destroyed by fire, there is normally no way to recover the data. In the event that only parts of the tape have burned, there is hope of recovering some of the data. To get an estimate of the damage and understand the chances of recovering the data, the tapes must be examined by an Ontrack expert.

Unlike a hard drive, this should normally have no real impact on the ability to read or write the contents of the tape. As modern tapes (LTO3 for example) are contained in solid casings, shocks suffered from a certain height do not pose a threat to your data. Even if the tape’s casing is broken, the band itself remains fully functional. In this situation, it is possible to insert the tape into another undamaged enclosure.

If your tapes are unreliable, you should no longer use them to store important data! Whether it's backups or storing legacy data, these unreliable tapes are no longer safe to use. If you are unsure of the tape’s quality, you can either take it to a tape service provider or purchase a tape diagnostic device for analysis. If the quality of the tape is too low to use for professional storage, you should consider migrating its contents to a new tape or another storage device by hiring a professional. What's more, Ontrack can provide you with a detailed analysis of the quality of your tapes, as well as a list of all the content stored on tapes that you are unable to access.

A simple answer: you can't! Either you can access the tape or you can't. If your drive does not show your tape, you have no way to access your data. The solutions to this problem are as follows.

• You have a second drive that functions specifically as emergency backup hardware. Hopefully, you can access your tapes and play them with this other drive. It is not uncommon for tapes that work perfectly well with one player but not to work with another, even if it is the same model of the same brand.
• You can clean your tape drive and hope that it works again. This may work as these drives were designed for sustained workload and longevity.

If these methods don’t work, you can look to buy a new or used player of the same make and model, or take the device to a specialist who can repair it.

Backup file read/write errors indicate that there may be a problem with the tapes or the tape drive. If cleaning the drive heads doesn’t work, don't try anything further to access the data on the tape, as it could make things worse. By attempting to access undamaged tapes with faulty hardware, you risk the permanent loss of your data. Therefore, it is advisable to immediately contact a specialist who can restore data using specialized tools.

In the case of tapes damaged by water, fire, or broken cartridges, you should not try to recover the data yourself! In most cases, you could make the issue worse and prevent any chance of tape restoration. If you try to access a damaged tape by inserting it into a drive, you risk destroying the machine, which is probably still worth a lot of money. In this situation, it is better to contact a data recovery specialist such as Ontrack.

If you're having trouble accessing your backup or if the backup process verification fails, it's not always easy to figure out where the problem is. There may be several reasons why the backup operation did not work such as if your backup tape wasn't stored properly or the tapes are simply too old. If you run into problems, try another piece of hardware or software to recover your backup.