Re: Best method for removing data from LTO-4 tapes used by BRMS

[DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

How many passes have they sustained thus far? They are rated to be 
filled 200 times (or so.) After that they are toast. (Toast meaning 
they'll probably shred inside your drive at some point.)

Honestly I don't think they'll have much value. You can get new ones for 
under $20 which obviously have zero passes on them. LTO 4 has been 
around a LONG time so your tapes may be nearing end of life.

You can do INZTAP and specify CLEAR(*YES) which will write the entire 
tape erasing all data. It will take SOME MINUTES per tape!!

DO NOT use a bulk erase magnet as that will clear the servo track as 
well and thus the tapes are useless. There is such a thing as a bulk 
tape eraser that zaps them much more quickly without killing the servo 
track but I don't know anyone who has one.

The best way to assure they cannot be read is to run them through one of 
the commercial shredders. (Really a tree shredder but they'll destroy 
tapes :-)

        - Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
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On 8/3/2018 3:28 PM, Gerald Kern wrote:
> I have several dozen LTO-4 tapes used only by BRMS running on i v7.2. and
> I'd like to prepare them for re-use and possible re-sale, perhaps on ebay
> or craigslist etc. But I need to ensure all of the data on the tape is
> totally unrecoverable.
>
> What is the best method to clear all of the data? INZTAP? Specific BRMS
> commands?