Tape Media Set - Bad Media

[leopod]

After a restore from a Tape media set, I got an "execution incomplete" with

 

"> !Device trouble: "5-TAPE MEDIA SET A", error -206 ( drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.)

Additional error information for device "Quantum Ultrium 4 DC" [0:0], Sense > 70 00 03 00 00 00 00 1e 00 00 00 00 3b 08 00 00 03 9c (돠瀚翿 |돠瀚翿 |돠瀚翿 )" in the log.

 

Since I do a staged backup disk to disk to tape, with occasional recycles of the disk media set, and inevitable wipes of the sources, I do not have access to the original sources that filled the 5th faulty tape. However, I have a "B" Tape Media Set that should contain the missing information. So for this actual restore I'm not worrying much. But for eventual future restores, I wish I could have two complete "A" and "B" media sets.

 

I don't think the whole tape is affected since I could recover some data. Is there a way to verify which data is recoverable vs. missing on the bad media.

 

Also, is there a way to know which data (sources and snapshot dates) is contained on the faulty tape, and if I was to mark it as lost, could I recover the data from my "B" media set to backup it again on the "A" media set.

 

Both tape media sets take approximately a total 8TB of space on 8 members each, so I cannot simply recover the total "B" set to backup it on the "A" again. I would be missing some space and I believe it would take a lot of time.

 

Any suggestion?

[twickland]

After a restore from a Tape media set, I got an "execution incomplete" with

 

"> !Device trouble: "5-TAPE MEDIA SET A", error -206 ( drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.)

While the tape member may indeed be faulty, the issue could also be with your drive. Did you try using a cleaning tape or running Quantum diagnostic software?

 

Also, is there a way to know which data (sources and snapshot dates) is contained on the faulty tape, and if I was to mark it as lost, could I recover the data from my "B" media set to backup it again on the "A" media set.

While that information exists in the catalog, Retrospect has never provided a way to search on the basis of a specific member or to otherwise extract that info. (What we do is to write on each tape label the date and time the tape member was first written to, which allows us to search for files on that basis.)

 

However, Retrospect 8.2 offers an option for matching files when copying between media sets. I haven't done this myself to see if this function actually works, but you may be a prime candidate to try it out. If you do so, please report back. (Do I seem at all skeptical?)

Edited May 18, 2011 by twickland

[leopod]

[]While the tape member may indeed be faulty, the issue could also be with your drive. Did you try using a cleaning tape or running Quantum diagnostic software?

 

 

While that information exists in the catalog, Retrospect has never provided a way to search on the basis of a specific member or to otherwise extract that info. (What we do is to write on each tape label the date and time the tape member was first written to, which allows us to search for files on that basis.)

 

However, Retrospect 8.2 offers an option for matching files when copying between media sets. I haven't done this myself to see if this function actually works, but you may be a prime candidate to try it out. If you do so, please report back. (Do I seem at all skeptical?)

 

Thank you for the answer

I tried the cleaning tape and also successfully restored from my B Tape media set, so I dont think ithe drive is to be suspected.'IDidn't run the quantum diagnostic software though.

 

For a copy between 2 tape media sets, i would need actually 2 tape drives i believe, but I only have one...unless there's another trick that would do it otherwise with only one drive?

 

My staged backup actually includes a "matching files" disk media set to tape media set copy backup, so I believe this functionality does seem to work. Not sure if this is what you meant but i report just in case.

[twickland]

For a copy between 2 tape media sets, i would need actually 2 tape drives i believe, but I only have one...unless there's another trick that would do it otherwise with only one drive?

Unless you want to first copy to some other type of media set (disk, optical) and then copy to the second tape set, you will need two drives.

 

My staged backup actually includes a "matching files" disk media set to tape media set copy backup, so I believe this functionality does seem to work. Not sure if this is what you meant but i report just in case.

I was actually wondering about a tape-to-tape transfer, but you raise a good point. If the process works for D2D2T, it would hopefully be the same for tape to tape.

[ggirao]

Yesterday I got this error (Media error, clean tape, etc). Strange:

Retro added a new tape to a media set (the one that manage de error);

1 Backup was skipped (i swear, i saw it starting, but on next day nothing shows on activity.

And now i'm trying to clean tape head, but when I move the cleaning tape it keeps saying Pending

 

Retro 9, going to copy to there.