erasing a tape

[Marcopolo]

I have a tape I want to erase. I can perform an Inventory on it but the Catalog fails, just prompting me to insert a tape.

It does have data on it but I want to remove any traces from it. Tried performing abackup but reports the mdeia as unrecognised and to erase (but all options are greyed out ro format/erase)

I have tried associating to various media sets and I can see the overwrite protection changing depending on which set I move it to.

Having performed this process before, does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

[CraigV]

Hi,

Put the tape in, right-click it and choose the option to erase. A short erase deletes the header...a long erase does everything, but a short erase is all you basically need.

If this doesn't work, get hold of your drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility and use this to erase the tape.

Normally associating the tape with the Scratch set will also allow it to be overwritten.

THanks!

[Marcopolo]

My next thing was to try the manufacturer application but I've mangaed to do this before using BE2010 because nothing seems to offer the option in the the application.

Is this normal or is it just a limitation or problem with BE?

[CraigV]

...nothing would do this in any application. You'd need to explicitly target the tape to erase, and do so from a pop-up menu after right-clicking it.

[Marcopolo]

I can recall erasing using BE2010 before. This was after using the manufacturer diagnostic utility to perform a full read/write test on the drive which rendered the mdeia incompatible with BE. I guess it must be hit and miss as to whether it's going to allow the erase option to be highlighted. 

[CraigV]

...there should be no reason to NOT have that option.

Otherwise just drag the tape to the Scratch media set...and make sure it is not physically protected.

[Marcopolo]

The tape is assigned as scratch but I cannot erase it, the option is greyed out.

[CraigV]

...weird that you can't, but it is overwritable!

[Marcopolo · Accepted solution]

Sorted, restarted the services and it kicked into life.