maty Posted May 28, 2002 Report Share Posted May 28, 2002 Hello helpful people, I'm having continual problems with my tape drive asking for new media. After a week or two of backing up the same thing (with a "normal" backup, which appears to be the backup that only backs up the new stuff, not the entire thing), it always asks for new media, like 2-projects or 3-projects or 4-projects. With the assumption that maybe we were backing up too much information at once, we finally broke down our backup schedule into three parts. Now, the "Projects" segment of that backup (which takes up 6.8 GB on a 20 GB tape, and we are using the compression mode) is doing the same thing after only a week. I read the properties of the tape, and it appears as though there's plenty of room, but ... yet again, it's asking for new media: 2-Projects. Any clues? I'm using the same dang tape each time I back up "Projects" (I'm quite sure, as I only have three tapes and two are in the drawer all the time), so there's no possibility the media is getting mixed up. In any case, this has been a continual problem with our backups since we started, and I'm definetly not so disorganized that I insert the wrong tape over and over! Help! I'm new to tape drives and need a hint! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted May 29, 2002 Report Share Posted May 29, 2002 Go to Configure/Backupsets. Get properties on your backupset. Go to Members Tab. See how much data is being stored on each tape. Does it match what you thought you should be getting? How much is each tape holding vs the 6.8gb your backing up daily? Check your log to see how much data it is saying is backed up each night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maty Posted May 31, 2002 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2002 Hi! Thanks for the help! I checked out the properties and the log, and it all adds up. There's been about 6.5 GB of information put onto the 1-Projects tape, and that's what it reads in the properties. There's been about 120 MB put onto the 2-Projects tape, and that's what it reads in the properties. It also says, on the day in which the backup set changed from 1-Projects to 2-Projects, that a member was skipped. Since this happened on a day I wasn't here, my guess is a helpful coworker perhaps did something, "skipped" something, and just stuck in a new tape. Does this seem logical? When I came back on Monday, it was asking for 2-Projects and .... hmm.. yes, it's all coming together now. Operator error. However, I do have another question that is closely related to this. We have Retrospect scheduled to fire at 10:00 every night. Before I leave for the day, I have it check media, and it always says it's ready. When I come in the morning, the little screen is up that has the devices on it and for the tape drive, it says "content unrecognized" for the tape that it had supposedly checked the afternoon before. Usually, I take the tape out, put it back in, and off it goes and does the backup. (My guess is the day I wasn't here, my coworker didn't know to do that, since I'm the backup lady, and hit "skip" or something...?) This has only NOT happened...mmm...maybe 5 times in the last 4 weeks. Any ideas why Retrospect won't just use the tape it's already approved? Thanks again, Maty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted May 31, 2002 Report Share Posted May 31, 2002 Could be the reason you stated. OR it could be that the drive needs to be cleaned. Running a cleaning tape through it regularly. See if that helps. If it doesn't help, then it could be just that tape (if it happens on the same tape each time).....watch for that. Or it could be a faulty wire. One bent wire, one loose wire could cause this type of behavior too (infrequently). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maty Posted June 11, 2002 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Hello Melissa- I purchased a cleaning tape, as you suggested, and have cleaned the drive twice. Monday I stuck in the Monday tape, and this morning..."Contents Unrecognized." What's up? It has so far happened with every tape, so I know it's not the tape. It's clearly not dirty. It happens almost every day. Any suggestions? If we only purchased the drive a few months ago, and it's happened for the past 6 weeks or so, should I be calling Seagate to have the thing fixed? Thanks again, Maty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 www.dantz.com/knowledgebase has some different troubleshooting steps. I would try them first before calling seagate. They range from swaping a cable to trying another machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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