Reading DLT tapes with very large block sizes.

[Michael C Voorhis]

Hi all,

I've been given a set of DLT tapes written with data in fixed 8Mb
blocks.  I have been unable to convince any OS to read these tapes,
and yet I need to read them.

Most tape drivers refuse to work with block sizes that are even a
fraction of this blocksize.  The tapes were created on a Linux machine
several years ago using the AMANDA tape backup system.

Can anyone offer davice on how I might go about reading these tapes.
I'm fine with patching code and installing an altered sa driver, but I
lack sufficient knowledge of how the scsi tape driver functions.  I'm
entirely willing and able to build a machine specifically to read
these tapes.

Any help, clues, guidance, etc would be wonderful.

Thanks,

	Mike Voorhis
	(mvoorhis at cs.wpi.edu)