BE10 - QuickStart - complete uninstall required

[Tom_Francis]

We purchased a new quantum drive that came with BE10 quick start edition. We have one server (new Windows 2003 server) and do not use exchange.

The problems we have had include jamed tapes (replaced the drive) i/o errors, media write errors, drive going off line, empty drive refusing to accept tapes and several more media error messages. We have been unable to run a successful backup more than two consecutive nights. Which is what is driving us nuts. It works for a few nights, then blows up. There is no correlation to jobs (the same job every night) or the media (one media set, and the days the jobs fail on do not show a pattern).

Since we are using newly purchased tapes and have already replaced the drive I want to completely remove and then do a clean install of the BE program.

Is there a utility that will remove all files, registry entries, and other remnants of the BE program? Or instructions to remove all parts of the program?

The performance to date suggests that something is seriously wrong with the current install and I doubt a simple add/remove programs would cleanly remove it.

Thanks for your help.

PS Has anyone had success with the quickstart edition i.e. should I even bother with this version?

[Lloyd_Cutler]

I personally have delivered over 20 implementation of quickstart, with minimal issues, as long as there are no remote agent needs, or multiple servers. it does require an upgrade before any agents can be added.
I have had quite a few defective DLT implementations, that all turned out to be bad DLT media.
Until replacing the media, it did not make sense to Quantum or us, and we tried the hardware route the first time, to no avail.
My guess is they have had some bad batches of DLT media, and if you use the Quantum brand they will replace at no charge.

[Edwin_Smith]

We have the Quick Start edition and a Quantum drive also. (See my other post) I finally gave up in frustration after completely uninstalling, reinstalling BE10 and all updates I still couldn't get it to work.

I went back to NTBackup which comes with SBS2K and it works fine. I do backups to tape and backups to disk with no problem. BE10 won't backup the exchange database without purchasing the option. NTBackup does it for free. BE10 just goes into stupid mode and hangs in the running state with no errors. The Symantec KB says there is contention with the device being used by some other program but this doesn't explain why BE10 won't do a backup to disk and hangs in the same way.

My advice is to uninstall BE10, use NTBackup and don't look back.

Edwin

[Tom_Francis]

We have had media problems as well... we are using TDK... all of them brand new... and we have had to retire about 5 already as they were reported (by BE) to be in an unrecognized format. 5 new tapes in less than a few months is a staggering attrition rate when we are running just one job (one tape) per day - 5 days per week. So most of these only were used for a maximum of 2-3 backups.


Going on the bad batch of media theory, I ordered 10 new tapes yesterday (this time Quantum label).

Meanwhile my second replacement tape drive from Quantum is in transit - the original new drive, in addition to a ton of media failures, would not eject a tape which (after manually turning the tiny screw shaft to get the tape out) was found to be physically sound i.e. not eaten by the drive. The replacement drive we installed, failed after about 3 backup jobs, as it refused to accept a new tape, even though no tapes were in the drive. Second replacement drive should be here today or tomorrow.

Needless to say I am not a happy camper at the moment. But I still would really like to know if there is a removal utility for the BE quick start edition. As I am going to replace the drive AND replace the media - I really want a clean install of the software. Does anyone know of one?

[Jon_Ziminsky]

I to am having meda issues. I use TDK media and thought i had gotten a bad batch. The more things i try the more i believe that it is not

To no avail, i have installed new drivers, firmware, and performed a repair installation. After poking around on the forums here i ran into something that I am planning on trying tonight to rectify this.

Hotfix 42 has to do with cancelling jobs and having them remain running even though they have been cancelled. Eventually i get an alert saying the the job was cencelled by user "Recovery". If i restart the services everything seems to be peachy until i try to cancel a job again.

I am not sure if there is a correaltion between the two. I will let you know after i apply the patch this afternoon.


Jon

[Tom_Francis]

Interesting that you mention the updates. I tried looking for updates, but I get a message advising that the updater is not installed.

Note: In my own office I have a windows 2003 small business server with a full version of BE 10d. This one has an updater that tells me what patches are installed and which are available for download.

This feature either is not available in the quick start version, or this install of quick start is corrupted. I have emailed veritas support asking for the removal procedures... over the years I have found that a corrupted install, rarely removes itself properly via add/remove programs.

In your case, are you using QuickStart version? Is your updater function working? Are you manually downloading patches for QuickStart version?

[Tom_Francis]

Anyone having problems like this with a new install.... please check out the spec on your SCSI controller card. In our case, it handled our RAID 1 mirrored drives and had several additional connectors on the cable for additional devices... but the fine print on the spec advised that it was not designed to handle drives in combination with a tape drive - we did not have any written info on that. When we called Dell for help on a drive error message problem we traced it to the SCSI card parameters.

We purchased another SCSI controller card solely for the tape drive. Uninstalled the QuickStart software. Installed the card. Reinstalled the QuickStart software, and now it looks like things are going to behave.

Also, apparently there is not a removal tool for Veritas products (Symantec has them for other products). I was advised to use Add/Remove programs and then run the microsoft installer cleanup tool to look for any "leftovers".

[Tom_Francis]

We continued to have unending problems with QuickStart Edition. 

We contacted the drive manufacturer that QuickStart came with... they walked through a downloadable diagnostics tool.  We unloaded the BE services.   Ran the tool and it wrote and read a 2G test fle with no problem.

We reinstarted the BE services, and problems resumed... 

We ended up taking the advice given earlier in this thread.... uninstall it and don't look back.