Is it possible to "Un-Re-Label" Media?

[DocFear]

Recently we went through a process of upgrading backup exec to version 9, along with changing the backup strategy. Part of this process involved re-labeling the media over a period of time. Yep you guessed it, someone now wants some data restored from a tape that has already been re-labeled but not yet actually re-used. I am fairly sure the data will almost all still be there just the label and catalog entries have been changed/blanked.

My question is does anyone know how to recover media overwritten in this way to a usable state?

The media is DLT IV the format is that of the VS80 type drives i.e. not the original DLT1 40G format.

Heres hoping someone has a solution that doesn't involve data recovery specialists

TIA, Steve G

 

[SQLBill]

LABEL MEDIA does an erase. In fact, when you select Label Media it gives you a prompt that this will be irreversable and will erase the data already on the tape.

Try it with an old tape and you should see the prompt.

-SQLBill

 

[DocFear]

Oh I know what happens when media is re-labeled, the effect is similar to a quick-erase. All the heared information is overwriten to make the tape look empty. But simply by virtue of how quick the label process is it cannot possibly have actually overwritten the data itself. I guess my question realy is does anyone know of some recovery tools that can bypass the headers in some way and go straight to the actual data.

Thanks for the quick response though.

 

[SQLBill]

The problem is that Label Media does JUST what it says. It relabels it (changes the header). So Backup Exec can't know what is on the tape because the header doesn't match the contents of the tape.

-SQLBill