A format inconsistency was encountered during a tape read operation on device "HP 4".

[sudu_mlk]

Hi All,

We are using Symantec Backup Exec 12.0 version on Windows 2003 standard edition with sp2 (64 bit) platform and HP G2 1/8 Autoloader with 1 HP Ultirum 920 tape drive , all the backups are failing with the error code "0xe00084ed - A hardware error occurred".

We had a power failure on the tape library last 3 weeks before, first we had a problem with the drive and we used clean tape to clean the drive.

After several troubleshooting on this tape drive, the cleaning tape got structed inside the side the drive and called HP Support technician to remove the tape. we are not seeing any issue on the tape library now.

but when running the backups geeting the above error and in event viewer we saw "A format inconsistency was encountered during a tape read operation on device "HP 4".

we have checked all the firmware of the tape library and tape drive and found upto date. we tried to restore option and it is worked fine without any issues.

And also replaced all the old tapes, tried with brand new tapes, but there is no luck.

please give me some solution on this.

Thanks,
SUDU

[CraigV]

Hi SUDU,

Take a look here...

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/253586.htm

Let me know if this works or not.

[sudu_mlk · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I already saw this article and we have further troubleshooted by the restoring the data with the old tape and it is completed.

We have used brand new tapes to backup, but this also didn't worked. Had a call with HP Support and he found the issue is with the tape drive again, this needs to be replaced and also he will check for the SCSI Cable consistency.

I will update soon once he replaced the drive....

Thanks,

SUDU

[CraigV]

Mmm...I should have noticed the type of HP device you were using. I am busy replacing all my autoloaders with MSL2024 LTO4 tape libraries. Those G2s were horrible!!!
Good work.