Some Tips For Minimizing Chances Of Performing Tape Data Recovery

By Author: Merge Tool
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Tape backups are still being used in many parts of the globe for storing important backup by business users. Despite the popularity of Compact Discs and DVDs, tapes are often used as storage media for their cost-effectiveness for saving data per MB of data. But still, just like any other storage media, tape drives, backup tapes or tape backup files might just fail. Although there are number of tape data recovery software available in the market today, but it's always better to be precautious. Here are some tips on minimizing the chances of a tape from getting corrupt:

Verify tape data at regular intervals- There are many backup software that offer the option of read after write to verify that your data is validated and verified. Although this process might be time consuming, but for crucial files it is important to do a full verification regularly.

Store one copy of tape data off-site- Saving a copy of data on a different storage media will help you ensure that your data is preserved. Primarily used platforms often experience corruption due to ...
... some untimely disaster. Therefore, the best way to ensure safety of data is keeping a copy of tape data off-site.

Store your tape records appropriately- With tapes saved on site, keep your important tape copies stored in a stable environment, away from extreme temperature, humidity and electro-magnetic rays.

Keep rotating tapes- Instead of using the same tape again and again, keep using multiple tapes. Use ‘n' number of tapes for storing your data. Keep rotating their shifts, for example use tape 1 on first day, tape 2 on second day and then use tape 1 again on third day. This prevents the tapes from being used extensively, thus prevents them from getting corrupt.

Forecasting expiry- Tapes are usually entitled to be used from 5000 times to 500000 times depending on the kind of tape being used.

Maintenance of Tape- Clean your tape drives periodically, make sure that the alignment of the drive is checked every 12 to 18 months. Most of the business sends the drive backup to the manufacturer when it starts to display problems.

Perform routine checkups- Keep testing your tape media at regular intervals and its backup copy for restore processes. For example, check whether you can restore the data from these media to different server or another partition or folder on the same server different from the one where the original information is store.

In addition to all the tips given above, it is important to know that you can never assume your technology is never going to fail. Electronic media is prone to fail and corrupt and therefore their proper maintenance and testing is always important. However, if you lose your tape data somehow, we suggest you to switch to tape data recovery tools for professional help. These tape data recovery utilities are devised to recover your data from corrupt, damaged and inaccessible tape media.