Recovery Storage Group Problems with BE 12.5 SP3

[reitgeek]

For whatever reason, BE keeps encountering an error when I try to restore to an Exchange 2003 SP2 box running within Windows 2000 domain.  We back up the information store every night with a full backup (auto select - BE snapshot technology).  We are not using GRT because we are using tapes (although I'm sure there is a work around out there).

After creating the unmounted recovery storage group within Exchange System Manager with the same name as the store being restored and checkbox allowing overwrite, I attempted to restore the IS only to get the infamous:

Error category:   e000ff00 - unable to restore some Microsoft Exchange components because one or more of the databases are currently mounted or because the recovery storage group is not properly configured.  Use the Exchange System Manager to check the configuration of the Recovery Store.


When selecting the job properties, I have the following selected under the "Settings/Microsoft Exchange" category:

• No loss restore (blanked out but checked)
•  
• Restore all transaction logs; do not delete existing transaction logs (no loss restore)
•  
• Path on Exchange Server for temporary storage of log and patch files (E:\)
•  
• Commit after restore completes (checked - only one tape to restore from)
•  
• Mount database after restore (checked)

Any pointers will be gracious accepted! 

[Ben_L_]

What may be happening is that something is telling us that the store is mounted, but it actuality it is not.  Might want to try the steps in this technote and see if they help.
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/313361.htm

[reitgeek]

Now I'm getting a new error:  E000FED1 (A failure occured querying the Writer status)  Resource Errors


For more detail...

Restore- \\GOPOSTAL\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group
V-79-57344-65233 - Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: 0x800423f3, State: 0013.

V-79-57344-65233 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status.

V-79-57344-65146 - Unable to restore \\GOPOSTAL\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group. The existing data on the Exchange server may be an unrelated instance, or one or more incremental backups may be missing. Verify that the complete sequence of the most recent backups are restored. If all backups are restored, then

V-79-57344-65072 - Connection to the restore target has been lost. Operation canceled.

I really appreciate the help.

[reitgeek]

Am I dead in the water?