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Manage tape drives overview

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You can verify tape library connections and view tape drive information before performing a tape backup or restore operation. You can use a nonqualified tape drive by emulating this to a qualified tape drive. You can also assign and remove tape aliases in addition to viewing existing aliases.

When you back up data to tape, the data is stored in tape files. File marks separate the tape files, and the files have no names. You specify a tape file by its position on the tape. You write a tape file by using a tape device. When you read the tape file, you must specify a device that has the same compression type that you used to write that tape file.