Question : restoring a tar from a tape with an unreadable section

I need to restore some files that have been 'tar'ed to tape using an IBM RISC/6000 AIX 5.2.   When I do a 'tar -xvf /dev/rtm0' or 'tar -tvf /dev/rmt0 a few files are read, but each time, at the same spot, I get "tar: 0511-193 An error occurred while reading from the media.'  I've tried the tape in multiple tape drives and get the same error at the same point.

I'm looking for some sort of way to skip over what I hope is just this one unreadable section.  I don't need all the files on the tape, just a few.  Is there some method or utility that will allow me to do this?  (Other than sending the tape to a data recovery company.)  A colleague's job is at stake.

I've tried all the tctl, and mt options for moving the tape to a specific file mark, but without success.

Thanks for you help,
Don

Answer : restoring a tar from a tape with an unreadable section

dd if=/dev/rmt0 ibs=4096 conv=noerror,notruncate | tar xf -

tar will complain on damaged section, but rest will be fine. probably gnu tar goes better. You will have 4k damaged in one file