Tape Drive Problem

[Charles_Sharp]

I just upgraded from 9.1 to 11d. I am backing up to a travan 40 drive. I have only a single drive and it takes 3 tapes for a complete backup. After the first tape is full it ejects and asked for another tape, I put in a scratch tape but the drive ejects it. I have checked to make sure that I have symantec drivers and have uninstalled an reinstalled tape drive drivers. When I look under devices it shows the correct tape "in-Use" but the tape has been ejected.

[Philip_Pearson]

Try pre-labelling your tapes and making them part of a media set that has the appropriate overwrite properties.

You can label them by inserting them into the drive and labelling them through media manager.

[Charles_Sharp]

I have already done that. In fact the tapes I am using were part of the weekly set that I was using with Ver 9.1 I even went so far as to move them to scratch which should insure that they are not overwrite protected. It recognizes tape two, moves it from scratch to weekly but the drive ejects it before any writing to the tape happens. At this point the software thinks the drive is in-use but there is no tape in the drive. If I push the tape back in, it runs a min then ejects again.

[Philip_Pearson]

What is in the logs? It normally just says something like "no overwritable media"

[Charles_Sharp]

The log just shows insert overwritable media which I do but it get ejected. It recognizes that a new tape was inserted because if you look under devices the new tapes name shows in the drive (even after it has been ejected). The drive shows in use. The only option I have at this point is to cancel the job. It never continues with the second tape.

[Ken_Putnam]

Forgive a silly question, but you didn't mention it -

Have you verified that the physical Write Protect Tab on the tape itself is in the "Write" position, not the "Protect" position?

[Charles_Sharp]

Yes, In fact I have tried starting the process with tape two which works fine until it asks for another tape (now tape 1 that was moved to scratch before beginning) and I get the same result. The tape runs just long enough to be recognized the ejects. If I put another tape in the drive after the second one has been ejected, that tape is not even recognized it is just ejected. I determine whether the tape was recognized by looking in the device and seeing what tape (they are named) is currently in the drive. No matter what tape I try, the drive lists the second tape as being in the drive but continues to eject it.

[Ken_Putnam]

Sure sounds like a driver problem -

Are you using manufacturer drivers or Symantec? Are you on the most recent ones? Currrent DriverPak is here http://support.veritas.com/docs/286763


Are you current on firmware for both the controller and tape drive?

If you shut down BackupExec, and run an NTbackup job that spans tapes, does it do the same thing?

Message was edited by:
Ken Putnam

[Charles_Sharp]

I have been think drivers too. I am using the latest firmware and I think I am using the latest symantec drivers. I have run the liveupdate.

I have not tried using the NTBackup program. It was my understanding that once you loaded veritas/symantec drivers NTBackup would not work.

The drive I am using is a Seagate STT3401A - firmware 310C and symantec drivers 5.1 6/23/06

[Ken_Putnam]

It was my understanding that once you loaded veritas/symantec drivers NTBackup would not work.

As long you shut down BackupExec first, NTBackup should operate OK

[Charles_Sharp]

I was unable to run NTBackup. Just says no media. I did go back to driver version 5.022 and when I had a tape in the drive that WAS overwrite protected it recognised this ejected it and asked for overwritable media, I put in a tape it began to backup my data, when that tape was full it ejected and asked for another, I put in another overwritable tape and it recognized it then error that said "the media in the storage device has changed". I have been thinking about calling support and paying for one time help but I had to blow another 90. Reading other posts makes it sound like support is lacking. Do you know what the refund policy is for software that doesn't work.

[Charles_Sharp]

I downloaded a demo version of CA's backup program and it worked fine with my drive. I uninstalled it, ran repair in Backup Exec, reinstalled symantec drivers. I was able to restore from a tape made with version 9.1. I then began a new full backup with a set of tapes that I moved to scratch. Began retention, kicked out tape and would not let me put in a tape. i canceled the job and now it still won't allow me to put in a tape without it being kicked back out. No jobs are currently running.

[Roger_Sager]

Hi Charles...

This probably will not help...but here goes...

I had a similar problem several years ago, and what I found out was that if a tape media was written by another tape drive (which is not compatiable to your current drive) then this was a problem with BE recognising the foreign media. I understand that the 1st tape gets written too okay, but its any subsequent tapes that is the problem?

If you do an inventory on each tape ...is the label for each what you expect? If you perform a long erase on each, then relabel each, will the 2nd tape in a multiple volume backup work?

This sounds like a very tricky ones.
Cheers Roger

[Charles_Sharp]

Thanks for the help but all my tapes are from veritas 9.1and I did try eraseing one set before starting a job.

I am thinking the drivers are not releasing the drive at the end of the tape and therefore is never really ready for a new tape.

I have been on the phone with support all day today and have not really made much headway.