Backup to tape drive with compression

jrmontg · #1 13th January 2006, 07:27 PM

I need to be able to backup files to my tape drive. I am backing up to a sony dds4 tape that says it can do 20 uncompressed and 40 compressed.

My question is how do I backup to the tape where it is compressed? (the regular uncompressed works fine)
Thanks

w5set · #2 13th January 2006, 10:53 PM

man tar
look for the -j or -Z or -z command options...

IronWolf · #3 14th January 2006, 01:55 PM

I don't think you need the tar compression options, you need to make sure your tape drive has hardware compression turned on. To do so you will probably want to start with 'mt' and check the status of the drive with the status option. That should tell you if compression is turned on for your tape drive. If it is not turned on you will want to look at the 'comp' option to turn it on. man mt will help with the syntax. If this doesn't work for you, hopefully it will at least give you enough info to get some good Google searches going.