Content Unrecognized

[uctautomat]

Hello,

 

 

 

I've a strange problem using Retrospect Workgroup Edition 5.6.132 under Windows XP Prof. and a HP Colorado 20 GB Travan IDE Tapestreamer.

 

The problem: I use HP 20GB Travan tapes which I erase within Retrospect, for a day of three Retrospect backups fine but on the fourth (sometimes fifth) day Retrospect didn't backup because the content of the tape is unrecognized. I find this very strange because the last days it worked fine without any warnings. I use one tape a week.

 

I'm installed all the new drivers (3.0) of Retrospect and the newest firmware for the HP Travan Tapestreamer and fully updated Windows XP and all of the other hardware drivers such as the VIA Chipset which is controlling the IDE Controller.

 

My machine is a AMD 1900 XP, With 512Mb DDR 266 memory, 80GB UDMA-100 7200Rpm harddisk and Windows XP Prof.

 

I've used 6 different tapes, all HP tapes which is recommended, the problem is the same.

 

Has anyone got an idea how to solve this?

 

 

 

With best regards,

 

 

 

John

[AmyJ]

This error message is basically a hardware error being reported by your tape drive. When you go to Configure>Devices and insert a tape, Retrospect waits of the tape drive to report the name of the tape.

 

 

 

When content unrecognized is reported, this means that your tape drive has read the header of the tape and is now reporting to you that the header does not contain readable data. Although your tape contains data, it is not readable Retrospect data.

 

 

 

This could be caused by several things.

 

 

 

1) Dirty tape heads

 

2) Bad or damaged tape

 

3) Tape created in a compression drive trying to be read by an incompatible non-compression tape drive

 

4) Tape written on a tape drive with heads out of alignment.

 

5) Failing read heads or failing tape drive.

 

 

 

If a tape is created in an older or failing tape drive, then the tapes are often not readable by a new tape drive. This is usually caused by head alignment problem or by drive compatibility between the old and new drives.

 

 

 

If a tape was recently created in a tape drive and now that same tape drive is unable to read the tape, then this could have a few causes:

 

 

 

1) Dirty tape heads

 

2) Flaky tape heads that are not reading data correctly

 

3) Tape damage during storage (Electromagnetic fields of some kind), environmental conditions.

 

4) Physical damage to the tape

 

 

 

Troubleshooting:

 

 

 

1) At the time of the backup was verification turned on? If yes and no errors took place, then this means at the time of the backup your tape was readable and something has changed to make the tape unreadable.

 

 

 

Try the following test:

 

 

 

Do a backup of 200 or more megs of data with verification turned on. Eject the tape. Turn off the computer and tape drive. Turn it all back on. Launch Retrospect. Go to onfigure>Devices and insert the tape. If the tape reports content unrecognized, then you have a major hardware problem and should have your tape drive serviced.

 

 

 

2) Clean the tape heads

 

 

 

3) Try the tape in an additional tape drive. If the tape is readable by other tape drives then this indicates your original tape drive has heads that are currently out of alignment or failing. The hardware would need to be serviced

 

 

 

4) If the tape is only readable by the original tape drive and no other tape drives, then this indicates that the tape was written when the heads were aligned in a very specific and non-standard position. In this cause the tape drive would need to be serviced. Before having the drive serviced you may want to copy the data from a tape in the old drive to a new tape in a new tape drive.

 

 

 

5) If no tape drives can read the tapes, then this means you would need to contact a Data recovery service:

 

 

 

Computer Conversions (California): (800) DATA-911 or (858) 693-1697

 

http://www.computer-conversions.com/