Trouble Reading Error -206; What Are My Options

[oslomike]

I have done a rebuild from my last tape of a backup set and I get the error -206 in the log. When trying to continue backing up, I am asked to insert a new tape. I understand that this is normal since my backup tape has some unreadable data on it cause by the backup computer hanging in the middle of the backup. So, would it be better to just continue on a new tape, OR is there another option where i can repair the damage and make use of the existing unused space on the tape?

 

thanks

 

Mike

[twickland]

... is there another option where i can repair the damage and make use of the existing unused space on the tape?

If something occurred during a write operation to the tape, this cannot be fixed.

 

Your easiest option is to preserve the data that exists on that tape member and move on to a new member, as Retrospect wants to do.

 

A more tedious option would be to copy the data from the damaged member to a new media set, erase the damaged tape, and then copy the data from the new media set back to the original set. Whether this would be worth it depends on the value of your time vs. the value of whatever empty space is left on that tape.

 

Of course, if you don't need the data on the damaged member, you could just erase it straightaway, mark the member as "lost," and then use the erased tape as the next media member.

[oslomike]

Thanks for the info Twickland! I will probably just move onto new media. HOWEVER, this now means I have a problem with my backup system. It has hung twice on two different backup sets. I have tested the hardware (mac hardware test, HP tape tools on the LTO-5, and updated the firmware on both the ATTO SAS card and the HP LTO-5 drive. Everything seems to be as it should be. Having said that, I am getting errors in retrospect logs that look as if there is a SCSI communication problem with the drive. Not only are there read errors, there are SCSI errors. One thing I have noticed is that sometimes the computer freezes when the screen saver comes on. Do you think the video card could have a problem which causes problems on the PCI buss which would in turn give me these kids of errors?

 

Lastly, are there any maintenance proceedures for retrospect (throwing away prefs or anything like that) which would help me get the system stable again?

 

Thanks for everyones help here in this forum!! I am learing a lot and hopefully will one day be able to help others.

 

Mike

 

If something occurred during a write operation to the tape, this cannot be fixed.

 

Your easiest option is to preserve the data that exists on that tape member and move on to a new member, as Retrospect wants to do.

 

A more tedious option would be to copy the data from the damaged member to a new media set, erase the damaged tape, and then copy the data from the new media set back to the original set. Whether this would be worth it depends on the value of your time vs. the value of whatever empty space is left on that tape.

 

Of course, if you don't need the data on the damaged member, you could just erase it straightaway, mark the member as "lost," and then use the erased tape as the next media member.