e00084ec - A tape read/write error has occurred.

[Shantanu997]

HI All,

First of All thanks for reading this post, it would be really appriciatable if any1 of u cud assist me on the same.

We have one Dell Server running Server2003 SP2 in which we have installed the Symantec Backup Exec V11.0 , Before some days Backup was performing well but after that it gone intermettint, like once in a week it get failed due to same error but after cleaning the Tape drive it again performs well, but it happens again some days later; But now its getting failed regularly from a long time more than 15 days and no backup getting completed.

We logged a call with Dell team, they replaced the Auto Loader(Backup Machine), nothing happened
then we replaced the Tapes and tried in new Auto Loader but result was the same backup get starts performs almost more than 300GB backup of data on a single tape drive but when switching from 1st tape to 2nd tape its getting failed (We use 400GB capacity Tapes for backup). It cud be a reason but i am not sure through which option/setting i can resolve this.

Then we tried re-installing the Symantec Utility but result was the same,we ran a test backup of around 500GB but got failed after 3Hrs(more than 300GB data).

I have copied the error below which is coming in log file which is :-
 " e00084ec - A tape read/write error has occurred.This is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive.  Clean the tape drive, and then try the job again.  If the problem persists, try a different tape.  You may also need to check for problems with cab
For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-34028 "

Please if anyone of you could help me resolving this problem will be really appriciatable.!!!
Thanks in Advance..!!

[pkh]

When Dell replaced the auto-loader, is the tape drive also replaced?

Normally, these kind of intermittent dirty tape head error is an indication that the tape drive is faulty.

Run the Dell diagnostic utility against the tape library.  Make sure that you stop all the BE services first and select the write test.

[Shantanu997]

We have already ran the diagnostics but nothing came up in the logs, it was successfully completed with no errors.

The AutoLoader(Tape Drive) got replaced before 7 days and we have replaced the old tapes as well with new one but nothing worked out..

We have also tried upgrading the firmwares of the server aswell but stilll nothing inhand

[ZeRoC00L]

can you run a backup with more than 300Gb of data with just NTBACKUP and see if that is running fine ?

[Shantanu997]

NTBackup Utility will not be a resolution as it can be used as an alternative option, i'll try this option later today evening but meanwhile if any1 has some other option which we can try out .. please do let me know...!!!!

[ZeRoC00L]

It is as a test, to make sure the 'error' is related to your hardware or software !

[Gregmfg]

Is it stopping at the same time everytime or on a certain file?

[Shantanu997]

no not at the same time... and i dont think its stopping on a same file aswell....

what i think is it could be the problem while switching the tapes from one to another...  this could be a reason for backup getting failed.....

[Ciderdrinker]

yeap got the same thing with a quantun autoloader lto 4 running BE 2010 r2 on MS server 2008 - upgraded to r3 that hasn't helped - backup runs for around 7 hours and bails out - saw this a few months ago on a different site - in the end built the server to 2003 and it all worked fine, wonder if i am better off doing the same thing again and seeing what happens

[rkarthikeyan]

am getting on the above following error messing