Utility similar to TAPESCRUB

[jaycee...@gmail.com]

We have some LTO3 and LTO4 tapes that have sensitive data and need to be "cleaned". the security option TAPESCRUB only works for 18 track tapes. Has anyone written a utility that has the same functionality or similar as TAPESCRUB. If there is any 3rd party software vendor who has similar product - please pass on their contact information.

Thanks,
Val

[Paul Kimpel]

This is outside of my expertise, so I contacted Chris Bremer at Dynamic
Solutions (DSI), one of the major Unisys storage partners. Chris' reply
is first, followed by my query. Note what he says about using a
degausser (or any other big magnet) on LTO media:

<quote>
Hi Paul,

How goes the B5000 emulation project?

First, no you can't much with the Direct IO IOCW to get it to do things
not implemented in MCP IO. The IOCW is masked when passed back to the
MCP to prevent that stuff. Darn since I would love to do some things
with LTO partitioning to implement LTFS on for the MCP. That makes it
difficult to do from the MCP but there are other options.

1) My first reaction is a tape degausser. Old school but they are fast.
You need a high power unit for LTO tapes like
http://www.garner-products.com/HD-3WXL.htm. The old hand held ones we
used on round reels are not strong enough for newer media. NOTE: if you
degauss an LTO cartridge it is trash as you have also erased the servo
tracks.

2) There are specialty devices that can do this if the tape is to be
reused. Such as http://www.mptapes.com/eraser/index.html

3) I think there are tape utilities out there for various OSes that use
the LTO ERASE command (19h with long bit set) but that can take a while
(hours).

Chris

Chris Bremer | Chief Technology Officer
Dynamic Solutions International
1 Inverness Drive East, Englewood, CO 80112

<snip phone and email info>

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Kimpel [mailto:paul....@digm.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 6:41 AM
To: Bremer, Chris
Subject: Fwd: Utility similar to TAPESCRUB

Chris,

I saw the attached on comp.sys.unisys and wonder if you could help this
person. From a little discrete Googling I found that LTO drives
apparently support an erase command. So the question is whether there's
anything in the MCP that will activate that mode.

Would it be possible to use Direct I/O in an Algol program to set
appropriate IOCW bits and command the erase? I know that the MCP masks
out some portions of the IOCW, so possibly this approach won't work.

(I have been trying to pull data off a bunch of old QIC-60 and -150
tapes over the past yearn, and have learned more than I ever wanted to
know about QIC and Direct I/O. Reading works pretty well, but there are
some things that you just can't write to QIC -- like tapemarks -- so I
won't be surprised if LTO erase is inhibited as well).
-- Paul
</quote>

Googling "LTO erase" returns some interesting links. Apparently a
drive-based erase may be possible with some "Unixoid" systems (love that
term), see

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Data-Protector-Support-and-News/Erase-LTO-tapes-to-make-them-worthless-to-thieves/td-p/4806869