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by throw0101a 2454 days ago
> It's easier to recover corrupted media if you know everything about the underlying format and protocols.

Sorry, I'm still not sure how knowing the LTO spec would be helpful.

You are basically asking for the "Layer 1" documentation of how the tape head write to the tape media? Given that you can only access the media via a drive, wouldn't it be sufficient to simply know the SCSI commands (T-10 SSC-x) to send? You'd then have to know the file format of the backup software (e.g., tar).
2 comments
derefr 2454 days ago
The parent commentor is probably talking about, in this case, wanting to know what would be required to write their own “external” tape drive firmware/driver, to post-decode an analogue flux reading (ala https://applesaucefdc.com/) of an LTO tape into the same digital data-stream that the drive itself would output. I.e., what would be required to write an “LTO tape drive emulator” to interface with hardware/drivers that expect to be talking to an LTO drive (perhaps in the context of emulating that software itself.)
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Avamander 2454 days ago
Let's pray we have the drives in 40 years. I think we're already seeing media lost with the Enchanced CD things.
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guenthert 2454 days ago
Why? You're not expected to find a tape in the attic 40 years from now and insert it into a drive you just bought at Fry's and restore the data from it.

If you do care about the data on any given medium a few years from now, you copy it then to a current medium. And so on.

This works fine as long new media are cheap, easily available and higher density than the old. As has been the last sixty years. If this progress ever halts or reverses (due to some man-made or natural disaster, including a major economical recession), we're screwed.

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Avamander 2454 days ago
Doesn't matter what is expected to happen. Some time in the future someone needs to recover data from some old medium, proprietary format hinders that effort significantly and unnecessarily.

Not to mention the closed format causes reduced competition in making better or cheaper devices, which is another downside.

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