How to mount a LTO tape-drive??

Post-Republic · #1 June 16th, 2009, 09:58 AM

Hi folks,
I was wondering if there's a possibility to mount a LTO-drive like a removable hard drive?
I'm only using it with my Retrospect backup software but now I need to open different tapes directly.

I'm thankful for every information.

BR,
Eric

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 June 16th, 2009, 10:16 AM

Tape drives cannot be "mounted" like regular hard drives. Tape drives are sequential storage devices, meaning it's near impossible to be able to "mount" a tape drive and browse it.

You'll need to use the software that originally created the data on the tapes to "browse" the data on the tapes.

Post-Republic · #3 June 16th, 2009, 10:27 AM

thanks,
that's what I thought. But my client how gave me a LTO tape told me about some kind of a javascript which is able to browse a LTO tape like a finder-window.
Do you know anything about that?

ElDiabloConCaca · #4 June 16th, 2009, 10:34 AM

I have not heard anything about a Javascript-based tape drive browser, nor could I find any reference to it with a little Googling.

I can see how this may be possible -- or may seem possible: perhaps the Javascript was actually browsing the tape catalog file (basically an index of all files located on the tape), and not the actual tape drive itself.

Can your client provide a link where he/she found the Javascript tape browser script?