[rescue] next up, how to read old tape of unknown format

[Andrew K. Bressen]

Thanks for the SCSI disk reading suggestions! 

Next up, I have a pile of tapes (DDS/DAT) to read and a drive. 

I don't know the formats of the tapes... most are likely unix, but
could be boot/install, dump, tar, possibly Legato Networker or 
VMS BACKUP.

So, how do I read them and make sure I've gotten all of the data off?

And once the data is copied, is there a self-evident way to figure out
what's a set of boot blocks and what's a tarfile, etc?

I have a 32-bit Linux box with a 3.x kernel running the tape drive. 

  --thanks for clues!
  --andrew