RD> I've had the same thing happen to tapes.  What a 
 RD> bummer.  I put the tape in, and it ran and ran and ran. 
 RD>  Then... THE TAPE HEADER CONTAINS UNREADABLE 
 RD> INFORMATION.  So I figure, if it's gone, I guess I'll 
 RD> format the tape.  So it runs and runs and runs.  
 RD> Then... THE TAPE IS NOT FORMATABLE.
That's because of an uncleaned drive!!! The information was still on tape but 
your drive couldn't read it because of dirty heads!!! That's why it couldn't 
read the tape as well as format it!!! Unfortunately, you have to clean these 
drives very regular or all kinds of errors occur!!! Just the other day I got 
an error that it couldn't read the tape because the tape needed to be 
reformatted!!! I removed the tape full with data and inserted it again and it 
retrieved the data I was trying to restore without any problem!!! No matter 
what happens once backed up the data is still on the tape and if you can't 
retrieve it on your own machine because of the tape despooling or for 
whatever reason the company that puts out the tape can!!! :)
--- Maximus 3.01
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