Cleaning drive

[suren424]

Hi,

I am trying to perform a clean job on our tape drive using symantec backup exec 12.0.

I just inserted a new cleaning tape,but still it says cleaning drive expired. On the backup console it still shows the old cleaning tape information. is there anything i need to do after inserting a new cleaning tape.

Attached the error message.

[pkh]

You can try clearing the cleaning statistics by right-clicking on the tape drive

[lmosla]

Hi,

Do you have this hotfix installed?  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH64588  and if you arent using Symantec drivers for the tape drive use tapeinst.exe to install them.  

Tapeinst.exe is located at: X:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec

[suren424]

Yeah .. Hotfix 312831 is installed.

[suren424]

i have reset the cleaning statistics .. but it's not picking up the new cleaning media,Still showing the old media says media is expired.
 

[Larry_Fine]

I would retire and delete the old cleaning cartridge from the BE UI.

[suren424]

So, i need to associate the cleaning media to "Retired media" and then run the inventory job.

Could you please help me with the steps.

[lmosla]

put the old tape in and then right click to to associate with the Retired Media, right click it again and select delete. Remove the old tape and insert the new cleaning tape. Run an inventory reference:  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH4855

[suren424]

Thanks for the steps.

Inserted the old tape, associated with retired media and deleted it. inserted the new tape and ran the inventory job. but it took the old label. is that fine ? 

next i ran the cleaning job ( it is showing as successfull) ... how can we confirm that the job did a proper cleaning.

Why i am asking is i get this error  ( attached the same)

[CraigV]

...try using a new cleaning tape...

[lmosla]

if it still fails after applying CraigV's suggestion try running diagnostics on the tape drive and review Windows System Event logs for possible hardware errors such as Event 5,7,9,11 and 15  these errors point to a hardware issue.

and if this is only occuring on one job try recreating it.

[pkh]

When you use a cleaning tape, the cleaning is always successful because cleaning is just wiping the tape head with the cleaning tape surface.

If you get cleaning requests after you have just cleaned your tape drive, then it is a sign that the tape drive is failing.  It needs to be replaced.  You might want to prove that the tape drive is failing by running the manufacturer's diagnostics utility against the tape drive.  If it fails, you would have an easier time convincing people to replace the tape drive.  Otherwise, you would still need to replace it.