boogiestudio Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Here's my problem. I have a backup set of 4 Tapes. I tried to do a full restore of all the tapes to do a little clean up. But when it asked me for the first tape and i put it in, it showed as an empty tape !!! But it was write protected ever since the last backup. Is there a known bug, or did someone delete the tape accidentally ??? Please help !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Quote: it showed as an empty tape !!! There is no such error message. What is the exact error message you were shown? Could it have been that the tape was "erased"? If so, I have seen that error message before when Retrospect has trouble reading the tape on insertion. The solution is to insert a cleaning cartridge tape and clean the heads. Before trying to do this restore, and after doing the cleaning cycle, I suggest that you use Retrospect's "Configure > Devices" to look at all four of the tapes, to verify that Retrospect can read the headers on those tapes. Whatever you do, don't remove the write protection until you are through with this crisis. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogiestudio Posted June 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Nope theres no error message, it reads the tape fine, but it says its erased. Just like i would insert a blank tape. I'm going to start the cleaning right now. thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Quote: Nope theres no error message, it reads the tape fine, but it says its erased. Just like i would insert a blank tape. I'm going to start the cleaning right now. thx Ok, you are seeing exactly what I posted about. The problem is that Retrospect IS NOT reading the tape "fine", but is getting an error at BOT, just as it would with an "erased" tape, so it believes that the tape is erased, when it is not. Unless you have stored the tapes near big magnets (or perhaps have not shielded the tapes from that TOKAMAK generator on the floor below you), the problem should clear up with a cleaning cycle. Let us know. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogiestudio Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Well, it's not working. And how long is the cleaning supose to take. because the tape only stays in for about 1min in total from the moment i put it in and it ejects. Is that a normal lenght ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogiestudio Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Is there a way to force mount a "fake empty" tape ... that would help ! I'm stuck here ... Please help by the way the drive is a, VXA-320 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 If the tape is showing as erased, and the tape heads have been cleaned, then you are having a tape drive problem. Basically if the tape shows as erased without a tape name, then the hardware can not read the tape headers. If it only happens to one tape, then that tape is damaged. If it happens to multiple tapes, then the backup drive tape heads are not working correctly. Try another tape drive to see if it can read these tapes. Check with the hardware vendor to see if they have other troubleshooting available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Quote: And how long is the cleaning supose to take. because the tape only stays in for about 1min in total from the moment i put it in and it ejects. Is that a normal lenght ??? Yes. Quote: by the way the drive is a, VXA-320 Ok, that is very critical information that you should have provided at the outset. Last summer, Exabyte released a firmware update that had problematic error recovery routines. Additionally, Exabyte had a batch of bad X23 tapes last summer. Perhaps you got one of those. The combination of the two caused some tapes to be unreadable. A subsequent firmware update at the beginning of this year fixed the error recovery routines. I found that all of my tapes that had become unreadable with last summer's updates became readable again with the subsequent update. By the way, the cleaning cycle suggestion I made was based on my similar experiences with Exabyte's VXA-2 drive, so I expect that it would be equally valid with the VXA-320 drive. The current VXA-320 firmware is V13206. I suggest you update your firmware. The link is here: Exabyte VXA-320 firmware updates Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogiestudio Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Well.. I thought the firmware update would save me. But i guess i'm stuck with a useless backup tape. I can't wait to tell my customers ... OMG ..... Thanks for all your help guys. I guess you win some, you loose some ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Have you tried reading other of the tapes in the backup set? Go to Configure > Devices, insert some tapes, see what comes up. They all have headers on them. Also, it might be that the files you need are on the other 3 tapes. You might be able to read the tape in another drive. Just for future reference, this is why you have multiple backup sets. russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogiestudio Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Ya I'm going to try to find someone in town who has another VXA tape drive. Besides that I'm out of luck. Thanks again. You've been really helpful !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Quote: Just for future reference, this is why you have multiple backup sets. That's also why regular scheduled test restores are a necessary part of a reliable backup strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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