Tape Conversion
0800 243 996
1800 930 183
Tape Audit About Data Conversion
Sometimes, even if the data can be transferred to another system it will be unusable. IBM Mainframes encode data using EBCDIC, which is not compatible with UNIX systems and means data cannot readily be interchanged between these systems.
VAX VMS systems structure records in a number of ways that are incompatible with any application in the Windows or UNIX arena.
Ontrack has developed a wide range of tools to process data so that it can be transferred to newer systems.
Ontrack has dealt with a wide range of data from older and obsolete systems and has developed bespoke software to effect a rapid and accurate transfer of data.
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IBM Mainframe/AS400
Data is encoded as EBCDIC with records being either fixed in length or with a binary length indicator. Transfer this data to your PC and try to use it and your application will probably crash.
To complicate matters further, the numeric representations used within data from these systems is often packed decimal (for example COMP-3), which is alien to any mainstream PC or UNIX application. Ontrack will take your COBOL record descriptions and use them to recreate your data in a usable ASCII form.
Ontrack can process your COPY or SAVE format data and convert it into delimited ASCII with printable numeric fields and suitable to be loaded into most PC/UNIX applications.
Although this conversion can often be performed via a PC link to the mainframe, the time required can run into days. At Ontrack we can process several gigabytes of data in a few hours and have your reprocessed data returned to you before the start of the next day's business.
Ontrack can convert from MVS Backup, AS/400 SaveObj and SaveLib and from MVS or OS/400 COPY format media.
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VMS Data
VMS systems contain data with a variety of differing record structures, most of which are not compatible with Windows or UNIX applications.
Ontrack has developed applications that will convert data from a VMS Backup set and restructure record based files to be compatible with the majority of Windows or UNIX applications. Even the VMS file version number can be retained where multiple occurrences of a file are found.
Data files containing records that are Fixed or Variable in length can be converted to be carriage return and line feed delimited. All this can be achieved rapidly and will save you from the trials of using complex and slow network or comms connections.
Media Conversion
Computer systems are notorious for being unable to communicate between one another. Just because you have the same drive as another system there is no guarantee that you will be able to read data from a tape that has been recorded by it.
Even between systems with similar operating systems and backup applications, interchange is a major problem. A SCO UNIX user, for example, will be unable to restore from a 4mm DAT based tar archive that has been recorded by an HP UNIX system.
Systems/Formats Supported
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Tape Formats |
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Tape Drive Manufacturers |
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Disk Devices and media |
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Interfaces |
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Operating systems
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Tape Backup Formats |
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If your host system or format is not shown, call us - we will support it!
