LTO-5 drive not found by Retrospect 11.5, Windows 10

[afripp]

Retrospect 11.5 under Windows 10, 64 bit does not find my LTO-5, HP Ultrium 3000 drive.

Windows 10 is up-to-date. The hardware is an HP Z620 workstation with an LSI 9207-8e HBA.

The HBA and tape drive show up in Windows Device Manager.  The tape drive is also identified quickly by "HP Library and Tape Tools" and passes all tests.

Since having the problem with Retrospect I installed the "HPE OpenStore Standalone" LTFS application as a test. It also picks up the tape drive immediately without any difficulties.

I have re-installed Retrospect several times and under the Configure/Devices, Environment tab, I have "refreshed" devices numerous times, but no improvement.

In the past, Retrospect was finding the drive (although intermittently) but it is now a consistent fail.

I previously was using an LSI-9200-8e HBA and had the same problem so I upgraded to the 9207-8e, but it has made no difference.

This seems to be a Retrospect problem specifically, because it is only Retrospect that cannot find the drive.

Help, please.

Andy

[DavidHertzberg]

afripp,

I notice that, at least in your fourth paragraph, you seem to want to treat this LTO-5 drive as an LTFS device.  You should be aware that, although Retrospect Windows 12 announces new support for LTFS, this is only for the Duplicate function—not for Backup or Archive.

Do you have a non-LTFS driver for your LTO-5 HP Ultrium 3000 tape drive installed on your HP Z620 workstation with an LSI 9207-8e HBA?

[Lennart_T]

Years ago, with an older Retrospect, an older Windows and an older LTO drive, the solution was to disable the tape station (and loader) in Windows Device Manager.

That way Retrospect was able to find and use the LTO drive and loader.

Hope this (still) helps.

[afripp]

Reply to DavidHertzberg:

I only installed "HPE OpenStore Standalone" to confirm that it recognized the tape drive and worked (because Retrospect was not working).  I do not intend to use it.

Re Lennart-T:

I tried your suggestion and disabled the device, but with no improvement.

The really frustrating things is that it was working on this machine before.

I thought perhaps the problem was related to antivirus software (Eset NOD32) so I disabled that completely - but Retrospect still does not find the tape device.

It really puzzles me what Retrospect is doing, because my other tape utilities and backup applications can see and use the connected Ultrium 3000 drive, just not Retrospect 11.5.

Andy

[DavidHertzberg]

afripp,

Have you installed the May 2013 (re-posted as of December 2015, but I think that's because of the HP-HPE split) firmware update for your LTO-5 HP Ultrium 3000 tape drive?  I've now found the Web page, by doing a more careful Google search.

There's also this December 2017 set of drivers, which I also found through the more-careful Google search, and the Enhancements tab seems to indicate it might apply to your tape drive.

However I just put in a fast (because I don't have ASM) phone call to the head of Retrospect Technical Support.  He says that tape drives are "absolutely" re-tested with every release, and that you should contact Tech Support if the above updates don't make it work.  Here's why and how to file a Support Case.

Edited February 20, 2018 by DavidHertzberg
Rewrote after doing a more-careful Google search; Tech Support says to contact them if everything is up to date and it still doesn't work; linked to Support Case boilerplate instructions

[DavidHertzberg]

afripp:

Have you tried doing what Scillonian suggested in this post in a thread to which you later posted the same complaint?  That seems to have worked for the OP of that thread MaxQ, since he/she didn't complain again after trying it.  The general drift of that thread is that there can be driver problems caused by clean installs of Windows.