Full Backup on Tape Drives

[Imr1]

Hello Guys,

I am taking Full Backup of my file server on tape drives. Total data size to be backed-up is around 400GB. I have DELL LTO Ultrium 2 data cartridges having 200GB (Native) and 400GB (Compressed) capacity. Now the question is yesterday I run full backup job and upon filling Tape 1, it is requesting another scratch media/over-writeable media to insert. I have inserted Tape 2 and same message pops-up again after writing 207GB data to insert scratch media.

Now I am trying to insert tape drive that have previously data written, and wants to erase it to get space but tape drive ejects automatically stating that 'Please insert over-writeable into the drive'

I need your suggestions and inputs to resolve the above said problem.

Cheers

Imran Malik  

[Siddhant_Saini]

Hello Imran,
When a job is spaned on multiple media, only the first media would be appended rest all would be overwritten(as tape can only be read linearly). So make sure all the media except the first is overwritable. 

You might want to refer to the following link to get more details on the issue: The alert "Please insert overwritable media" is displayed during a backup operation

I'd also suggest you to refer to the following link: An explanation of the "Overwrite Protection Period" and the "Append Period"(with a video)

[VJware]

What is the compression ratio which you are receiving ? Has the tape drive been cleaned recently ?

Try switching over to software compression and check if the data compression ratio is better or not.

Lastly, if you want to erase the tape, either wait for the backup to complete or cancel. Then insert the tape and you can either erase it or move the tape to scratch media set.