Tape Media - End Marker Unreadable

[Thundercleese]

I have a couple of questions regarding what to do when a media tape errors out with 'Not appendable (End marker unreadable)' in Backup Exec 12.5 SP2.  

1.  Is the data that got backed up on that tape still good, meaning can I restore off of it?
2.  It better to just do a 'Full Erase' of that tape?

Thanks much

[Colin_Weaver]

This can happen to a tape if the service fail in the middle of a backup or is someone powers off your server. There may also be other reasons. If this is happening a lot then you probably need to investigate the cause. However to answer your points

1. The data up to the point of failure may still be readable - check the restore selections and even try a test restore. However I would be worried that the media would be difficult to catalog in a DR situations
2. This media is still overwriteable so no need to erase - just move it to a set that allows it to be overwritten - or leave it in the current  media set until the rules allow you to overwrite it.