CheshireCat Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 I need to restore the contents of a tape. However all the set members are missing except this last tape. I created a new catalog from the tape, then set the other members as missing. I then expect the restore process to get whatever files match my Files selection that happen to be on this tape (if any). But Retrospect hangs on "Searching drives for 2-Backup Set A". Also, it seems that Retro is hanging on the execution of this job, meaning that I can still do other tasks in retrospect, but stopping the job never fully completes and exiting retrospect never completes because the job will not close. (I get something like "Are you sure you want to exit, there is 1 job running..." -- I can tell retro to stop the job, but it stays in the exiting state). My tape drive is HP SureStore DAT24x6 Autoloader. This happens in both 7.0.326 and 7.5.324 w/ DU 7.5.7.103 (Windows Multiserver). 1. Shouldn't Retro know that 2-Backup Set A is missing? 2. I see no SCSI or hardware errors, just the "Execution terminated unexpectedly..." event from retrospect being killed thu Task Manager (meaning, I don't think its the tape drive.) 3. Is there an alternate way to view or build a catalog of a single tape and restoring its contents? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekr0phage Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 Hi Cat, 1. Yes it should, check the members tab of the backup set properties and ensure the tape is listed as missing there. 2. I'm not so sure - from my experience the hanging part of this issue sounds like a potential communications issue. You don't specify what operating system you're using, but you may need to install ASPI and have Retrospect use that over the default NT Passthrough. Also, could you describe your SCSI setup more? Any other devices? Known good cable/terminator? SCSI id's? 3. There is only one way to rebuild the catalog. You can restore using snapshots (Restore) or not (Find Files). If you select the Find Files option with no search criteria you should be presented with a list of all known data in the backup set. Any files that are located on a tape that is marked missing will have a small indicator - a starburst or poof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheshireCat Posted September 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Quote: Hi Cat, 1. Yes it should, check the members tab of the backup set properties and ensure the tape is listed as missing there. Yup, they still show as missing. Quote: 2. I'm not so sure - from my experience the hanging part of this issue sounds like a potential communications issue. You don't specify what operating system you're using, but you may need to install ASPI and have Retrospect use that over the default NT Passthrough. Also, could you describe your SCSI setup more? Any other devices? Known good cable/terminator? SCSI id's? I admit that the SureStore DAT24x6 is new (previously I had one DAT3 drive -- Sony SDT-9000 -- which was used to create this tape, but it's requesting cleaning and wont accept a cartridge (seems like its kaput)). The new/temporary 'Backup Set A' catalog was recreated using this new autoloader and it's robotics seem to be working fine. The SCSI chain goes Adaptec AHA-2940 (#7) -- Sony SDT-9000 DAT3 (#4) -- HP C1537A/DAT24x6 Autoloader (#5/#6) -- Terminator (all narrow). Quote: 3. There is only one way to rebuild the catalog. You can restore using snapshots (Restore) or not (Find Files). If you select the Find Files option with no search criteria you should be presented with a list of all known data in the backup set. Any files that are located on a tape that is marked missing will have a small indicator - a starburst or poof. Tools | Repair Catalog | Recreate from Tapes. I select the tape and it goes on its merry way, reporting ALL the files from entire set. Lastly, I've googled and it seems my Sony SDT-9000 DAT24 is suffering from a problem where its in need-cleaning status but wont accept a cleaning cartridge -Cat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Quote: Lastly, I've googled and it seems my Sony SDT-9000 DAT24 is suffering from a problem where its in need-cleaning status but wont accept a cleaning cartridge Maybe the cleaning tape has been used up and needs replacing...They have limited cleanings before they run out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheshireCat Posted September 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Quote: Quote: Lastly, I've googled and it seems my Sony SDT-9000 DAT24 is suffering from a problem where its in need-cleaning status but wont accept a cleaning cartridge Maybe the cleaning tape has been used up and needs replacing...They have limited cleanings before they run out. Naw, it's a new tape (just unwrapped it), and I tried a second tape also. But thanks -- good suggestion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 sounds like a drive hardware issue. Tape cleaning is totally handled by the drive. If it doesn't accept the cleaning tape then something is broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheshireCat Posted September 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2006 How can I change Retrospect's cleaning interval and have it stick? I noticed that with the host powered down, the tape's status light stopped blinking (for the drive it repeats 3.5 seconds on, .5 seconds off). This suggested that either the status isn't reported when the SCSI chain is not-live, or there is a software setting forcing the request-cleaning state. In Retro. there is a place to change the cleaning interval, however when I change it to 0 (zero -- for 'never') then exit, and then go back into that screen, the interval is always reset to 20-hours. !?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekr0phage Posted September 15, 2006 Report Share Posted September 15, 2006 Hi Cat, Zero is not a valid entry for that setting. Are you sure it's a signal from Retrospect and not the OS? With a SCSI connected drive you should be able to disable the device in device manager and still have access to it with Retrospect. Food for thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheshireCat Posted September 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2006 In Restrospect, on the Properties page for the drive, click the left-most icon (clock) -- it says "Clean drive after how many hours of use? (Enter 0 for never)". Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this (FWIW, I originally though this drive was self-cleaning ...) I increased it to 50 hours, but status light still blinks 3.5/.5 sec. on/off (cleaning request). I can't see how Windows XP would tell this drive it needs cleaning. ?? I found two available driver files dated 05-16-02 (sxpdds.inf & sxpdds.sys) for this drive. But I've never had to install drive-specific drives before -- just ASPI. If I could find a Sony utility for managing the drive (settings, fireware) then I give that a go, but... Anyway, getting back to the original issue of getting data off of the old tape (BTW, I would have had some of the other tapes in the set, but due to no clear instructions on the process, I fiddled around -- stupidly without write-protecting the tapes -- and Retro erase the tapes). I guess I'll give up on this. Data is lost. SOL. Chalk one up to experience. Thanks all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Quote: In Restrospect, on the Properties page for the drive, click the left-most icon (clock) -- it says "Clean drive after how many hours of use? (Enter 0 for never)". Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this (FWIW, I originally though this drive was self-cleaning ...) I increased it to 50 hours, but status light still blinks 3.5/.5 sec. on/off (cleaning request). I can't see how Windows XP would tell this drive it needs cleaning. ?? The indicator on the actual device is controlled by the device only. To turn if off (temporarily), run a cleaning tape. It is not controlled from Retrospect nor Windows. The control in Retrospect is for a Retrospect dialog as a reminder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheshireCat Posted September 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 I found Sony's Tapetool and 601 firmware for this drive. After upgrading, the drive will now accept the cleaning cartridge, seems to run the cleaning cycle, ejects the tape, but the cleaning state is unchanged. Tapetool lets me look at the tapes registers and I see that the cleaning request flag is set (1). What's worse, is that this drive now behaves weird when Retrospect is open. When I load a data tape (any -- Sony, HP, Fujitsu, DDS1, DDS2, DDS3), a cycle ensues: the tape is loaded, attempted to be read, unloads, rewinds, loads, attempts read again, etc... I spoke with Sony and they couldn't help. I guess this drive's time has come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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