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Asked: 2015-04-26 13:13:56 +0800 CST

How to recover Symantec Backup Exec backup via Linux?

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I have a tape backup from a defunct server that was created via Symantec Backup Exec version 10.1.5629 on Windows.

Is it possible to extract the backup from this using some standard or open source tools on Linux rather than resorting to a copy of Backup Exec?

I presently have been able to use dd if=/dev/st0 ibs=64K of=tape_contents, but am now unable to actually extract the data.

I was initially told that this backup was created with the Windows Server 2003 Backup software, however when I attempted to use mtftar, I received the following output:

mtftar -v < tape_contents Output:

MFT Generator: Symantec Backup Exec 10.1.5629 Tape Name: Media created
4/2/2015 9:00:08 PM Tape Label: MTF Media
Label|1.0|VERITAS|PVL|2006/11/18.03:00:11|LTO000003|1|{938BB24D-60F6-45B0-ABB5-E66AE4C1EB72}||

MTF out of order (files before directory saw 1701079382 while
expecting limit of 0) Segmentation fault (core dumped)
linux

1 Answers

  1. Backup Exec does speak MTF.

    Looking at the actual mtftar source--and issuing the disclaimer that I don't code C, I just limped around faking C a long time ago--I note that the error message in question is the last else if and that the next thing in your error message is a segmentation fault. My instinct--worth what you paid for it--is that the file in question is corrupt and crashing mtftar, and that the error message isn't the actual reason why mtftar crashed.

    I don't suppose you have other files you could possibly test this hypothesis on?

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