LTO 6 tape always ejects at 32GB

[dayday]

I have the trial version of retrospect and I'm performing some tests before I actually buy the product.  The issue I am having is I'm trying to backup a 50gb project folder-containing multimedia files, videos, audio, etc.  It always ejects the tape when the backup reaches 32GB and the program says, needs media.  

 

I am using LT06 connected with SAS and the tape is 2.5 TB native.  So a 50GB folder should be no problem.

 

I have tried backing up 2 ways, with the folder on the local desktop and with the folder coming of a drobo raid connected with iscsci.  Failed at 32GB both times.

 

I also tried with a brand new tape.  I also tried backing up a completely different project folder about 50GB, and it still ejected the tape at 32GB.

 

I also tried erasing the tape and backing up, I tried removing the media set and made a new media set, and all failed at 32GB.

 

Please advise, I really want to buy the program, but if it doesn't backup more than 32GB it is useless to me.  I want to use all 2.5 TB of my native space on my LT06 tape.

 

I've also tried backing up this same exact project folder with BRU and it worked just fine, so I don't know why it's not working with retrospect.

 

I have all the latest SAS drivers, LTO firmware, and retrospect 10.2.  Using MAC OSX 10.6.

 

Retrospect is getting a sense code back from the tape drive, 00/02 END-OF-PARTITION/MEDIUM DETECTED.

 

anybody have any ideas on what's wrong?  

 

[Lennart_T]

Did the tape drive come with a test tool? What happens when you run it?

 

Have you tried this hardware with another backup software? (And I mean "this" hardware, not "similar" or "identical".)

[dayday]

It looks like using a brand new unopened tape solved the problem.  But now I have another problem of having 2 unusable tapes that I can't re-format on the mac.

 

If there is no mac utility to format the tapes, then how am I supposed to erase the data?

 

 

the tape drive didn't come with any utility expect for LTFS manager.  Quantum said there is only PC software testing tools, not mac.

 

Retrospect can do a long erase, but that long erase is limited to the formatted partition of the tape.  Retrospect can not do a full "format" of the media, mostly because Retrospect assumes you are using a factory fresh tape, which is always formatted for the full media capacity.