jmosk Posted November 10, 2002 Report Share Posted November 10, 2002 I am using two OnStream 30Gb drives on two separate backup systems. I have never had problems with one of those systems, and have filled more than 5 30Gb tapes with backup data. But the other system has continually been the source of problems. Occassionally the tape system seems to return an error response to Retrospect. Perhaps a "Tape Heads Have to be Cleaned" message or a "Bad Media" message. Rather than retry, Retrospect asks to have the media changed and automatically assigns the next member of the set. So 3-Backup C will go to 4-Backup C. Now I don't even have an option of retrying the old tape and seeing if the problem clears and I can continue to use the tape. Instead, I am forced to mount a new tape. So after 2Gb of a 30Gb tape, I have to load a new tape. The end result is that I have lots of large tapes that are hardly used and I am spending a lot of money on physical tapes that have ltos of spare capacity. Is there some way that I can force Retrospect to return back to the last set number so that I can have it retry the old tape before moving on to a new one??? I want to go back to 3-Backup C in my example, and never start the 4-Backup C tape that it is requesting. Let's make sure the old tape is no good before being forced to move to a new one. Anyone have any ideas of what I can do to avoid wasting so much tape? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted November 11, 2002 Report Share Posted November 11, 2002 Once a device error has occured, Retrospect will no longer continue to use the member in use at the time of the error. It is not possible to change this behavior. If you are continually having these issues in one setup, but not the other, I would recommend switching tape drives to see if the problem follows the tape drive or stays with the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmosk Posted November 11, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2002 It just doesn't make sense to me that there would not be a provision to re-use the old media which was the last member of the set, rather than force the switching to a new tape. Or at least provide me an option to try it again. A device error does not necessarily imply a media error. Without any retries I am forced to go through a lot of tapes because of a problem like a lose USB connector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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