mt on ultrium lto-3

Basic commands for the use of ultrium (digging up mode)

The advantage of the ultrium LTO-3 cartridges is that it was possible for me to buy a package on ebay.
OK, there was a backup from a UK IT company with database and java sources for the health service but, even though the data looks crispy, I need to wipe it to use the tapes as a backup.

Here are a few commands that I find useful:

First, remember that /dev/st0 rewinds at the end of the command and /dev/nst0 remains at the location at the end of the command.

mt -f /dev/st0 erase

mt -f /dev/nst0 bsfm 1

mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf 1

mt -f /dev/nst0 eod

the use of the backup will be done via tar:

tar cvf /dev/nst0 dataToRecord

tar tvf /dev/nst0

No need to list the rest, I will remember how to use the thingy

It is still possible to use dd instead of tar see https://man.openbsd.org/dump dump and restore