Reading Cache-A formatted tapes…

Storage & Archiving

Reading Cache-A formatted tapes…

Posted by Steve Strickler on June 16, 2015 at 11:34 am

I own a Cache-A Prime5. It would seem that instead of helping me with my problem, they’d like to just extract more money from me for even just phone support. Due to it crapping out twice in a year, I’m throwing the baby away with the bath water and going with a more reliable solution.

I have two questions:

1. Will I be able to read the tapes with MLogic’s Mtape and a front-end software and/or convert the tape formats?

2. Is there an external case that will allow me to remove the LTO5 drive from my Cache-A and hook to the MTape’s SAS expansion connection. (ie. an external case, with SAS)?

Thanks for any words of wisdom.

Tom Goldberg replied 10 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Tim Jones
June 16, 2015 at 8:55 pm

The Cache-A tapes are either TAR format or LTFS format depending on what you selected. If they are LTFS format, you can use the mTape with the generic IBM LTFS tools. If they are TAR, we offer the TOLIS Tape Tools suite for dealing with TAR tapes on a Mac (OS X’s tar doesn’t know about accessing tape).

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
Steve Strickler
June 17, 2015 at 9:27 am

Awesome…thanks! What about salvaging the LTO5 from my Cache-A device and putting it in another case, and plugging into the MTape’s SAS port?
Thx
Tom Goldberg
June 17, 2015 at 3:14 pm

The tape drive in your Cache-A is a standard HP SAS drive (for LTO-5 that would be the OEM version of HP StoreEver LTO-5 Ultrium 3000 SAS Internal Tape Drive EH957B).

It will work on a standard SAS port with appropriate cabling (easier said than done) and software but as to how MTape presents that port through its interface I can’t say.

Tom Goldberg
TGCS
30201 Rainbow Hill Rd.
Evergreen, CO 80439
mailto:tomgoldberg@gmail.com
https://tomgoldberg.net
Tim Jones
June 17, 2015 at 3:31 pm

You could do that. The problem is locating an external chassis and the proper internal SAS (8087 to 8482 + Molex 4 pin power). If you dig on Amazon and eBay you can probably find what you need. That drive is fine with a 65W power supply in the chassis.

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
Tom Goldberg
June 17, 2015 at 4:37 pm

If in fact your tapes are TAR formatted, it would be helpful to know that Cache-A tar tapes use a blocking factor of 300.

Tom Goldberg
TGCS
30201 Rainbow Hill Rd.
Evergreen, CO 80439
mailto:tomgoldberg@gmail.com
https://tomgoldberg.net

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