Symantec Device Drivers for IBM Tape Drives

[randy915]

Hi

I'm running Backup Exec 2010 R3 SP2 w/ hotfix 176937 & 180429 on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x64.
The tape drives are IBM Ultrium 4 and 5 drives in a Spectra Logic library, both running Symantec drivers dated 2/12/2008, version 5.1.37.0.

When I click on "Update Driver" in Device Manager, it upgraded both to a newer IBM driver dated 2011 but upon library + BE reboot, I notice that both drives have the black "X" mark and are not associated to the tape library list; basically non-functioning.  I had to rollback in order get it working again.  My gut feeling is BE requires Symantec drivers to work with these drives so...

I been searching high and low but cannot find drivers on the Symantec site.

Trying to troubleshoot issues and using 3.5 year old drivers does not help my cause...

Thanks for the help.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Go to the BE installation directory and use tapeinst.exe to re-install the Symantec drivers.  You would get the latest Symantec drivers even if they are old.

Your library should be listed in the Windows Device Manager as an Unknown Medium Changer with a Microsoft driver.

[ExpressISTeam]

We run a TS3200 tape library and ran into the same issue ourselves.

To be honest we never were able to find the latest symantec drivers and ours were also 2008 but found the same issue when we upgraded to IBM drivers.

Good luck in your search I will be following this with keen eyes!

[CraigV]

Hi,

Are your drivers working currently? If so, it's possible that you're working on the latest drivers (manufacturer drivers may/do work, but it isn't recommended), and I'd suggest just staying on them unless you have another issue preventing your backups from working.

Thanks!

[randy915]

Perfect!  I ran the utility and it does a scan of all devices and then shows whether there are newer drivers for the drives.  In my case there's no change.

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\tapeinst.exe

There's a local help file that explains what the "Details" page looks like here:
C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\tapeinstdetails_EN.htm