problem to initialise second hand tapes

[Wolfgang_Beyer]

Hi,

we work with a drive FastStor 7000 and tapes of the type HP DLT IV. Now we have purchased 10 second hand tapes (used only once perhaps with a different soft and hardware) but we are not able to use them. Trying to write a new ID or to erease (slow or fast) leads to an error message telling "defective medium" (in german "Fehlerhaftes Medium"). The hardware write protect switch at the tapes is deactivated. With completely new tapes of exactly this type we have no problems. What are we doing wrong? Thanks for any hint!

[Ken_Putnam]

If they were used with a DLT1 drive, you will not be able to use them with a DLT7000 drive. The formatting is completely different.


See http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/tds/pdf/DLT_I_MediaComp.pdf

[Wolfgang_Beyer]

Thank you for the answer. In the weblink you mentioned, problems with tapes used before in DLT1 and ValuSmart-Tape 80 drives are reported. My tapes have been used before in HP SureStore DLT 80e drive with BackupExec 9.0. Is there an identical problem? So far I understand your answer, you don'™t see a solution for DLT1 written tapes. What about the other drive types? Is there any tool formatting such tapes and ignoring any previous formatting?

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[Ken_Putnam]

Hmm

DLT80 should be OK, regarless of manufacturer.

Used to be that you could use "NTBackup /nopoll" on NT4 to rewrite the header, but that command disappeared with Win2000

Have you tried just relabeling the tapes? You would be able to use them as scratch, but would, of course, lose any data on those tapes

[Wolfgang_Beyer]

Our BackupExec is running on a NT 4.0 Server. I never accessed any tapes on our drive by "ntbackup". Trying to do so leads to a message like "tape not inserted correctly" but the drive "Quantum DLT7000" is recognized. Obviously no driver is installed. For the access to the tapes via BackupExec no driver installation was necessary.

Relabeling seems to mean what I denoted above as giving the tape a new ID (in german "Medium kennzeichnen"). It is the context menu topic telling me that the tape will get a new name and all data are lost (no problem, I am not interested in any old data). Trying to relabel the tapes leads to the error message "defective medium".

The full name of our drive seems to be "adic FastStor DLT7000 autoloader" and it is connected via SCSI.

[Shyam_Sundar]

Hi,

This is most likely a problem with the tapes. But still you can try performing cleaning jobs and then try erasing the tapes. Check also for any errors in the event logs and also for the tape alerts.
You can also refer to the following document :



http://support.veritas.com/docs/231190

You can also try installing the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) drivers and then see how it works.

NOTE : If we do not receive your intimation within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to the "answered threads" pool.

[Wolfgang_Beyer]

That's it:

1. Closing BackupExec and all corresponding services
2. Loading the tape manually (we have an autoloader)
3. Executing the command "ntbackup.exe /nopoll"
4. Ereasing the tape via menu

Thank you!