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Dave_York's avatar
Dave_York
Level 2
20 years ago

Recycling windows backup tapes into backup exec 9.1

This may be an easy answer... However, I'm pretty new to BackupExec...

We just upgraded a server from Windows NT backup to BackupExec 9.1... We have old tapes that have data (that can be overwritten) that were written with NTBackup headers... When backupexec loads the tape, it says 'unrecognized media' and EJECTS the tape.

This leaves me with two questions... A) How do I prevent it from ejecting the tape when it's detected as unrecognized B) How can I get it to automatically reformat the tape into a backupexec format?


Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

5 Replies

  • Same tape drive? IF so, BackupExec should be able to read those tapes fine

    It wouldn't be automatic, but you could try loading a tape and then labeling it.
  • Thanks for the tip, I'll try that (it's at a remote site and my contact is away from his desk right now, so I'll try it here in a few)

    Some more information if anyone is interested... The alerts go something like this in the alerts tab:

    (10:15 Job Runs)
    10:15AM Media Unrecognized
    10:16AM Please remove media from the drive
    10:20AM Please remove media from the drive
    10:20AM The device is not ready

    I'm assuming this means what I said in my original post, that it doesnt recognize the tape, ejects it, the job keeps trying to use the drive with no tape in it then gives the 'device not ready' alert.

    Any additional insight?
  • Hello,

    As Backup Exec states "Unrecognized media" execute the following steps:-

    1.Perfomr inventory on the tape..
    1.Go to the Devices tab > Select the drive > Right-click and select inventory

    2.Also install teh latest drivers:
    VERITAS Backup Exec (tm) 9.1 - Device Driver Installer (20050115) - Includes Tape Driver Release (20041231) and Robotic Library Release (45) (Intel Only) http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/273853.htm


    verify the result;

    NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.
  • I've used ntbackup tapes with Veritas before without issue.

    However, in seperate incidents, I have seen teh "urencognizable media" error before.

    http://forums.veritas.com/discussions/thread.jspa?threadID=44212&tstart=0

    Try to do a quick erase, if that doesn't resolve the issue, or if it comes back, you have my issue.

    Solution: just accept it and move on with your life. After a billion hours of scouring the web, using these forums, and Veritas tech support, I haven't come across a solution, unless you consider requests for intimacy and large amounts of control characters a response.
  • Hello Dave,

    Have you tried the steps mentioned in the previous two posts? If the problem persists after that please write back so we can troubleshoot further.

    NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answeredand would be moved toanswered questions pool.