"Content Unrecognized"

[maty]

We are having a problem with our nightly backups. At the end of the day, we insert whichever tape it is that is required for that evening's automatic backup at 10:00 PM. We then hit the "X" in Retrospect (Express) to close out the program, ask it to check the media before quitting, and it always certifies that the correct media is in place and ready to record our information.

 

 

 

The next morning, when we come in to work, a message is on the screen saying the media was not recognized. The backup, therefore, was not performed.

 

 

 

The solution to this, which works every time, is to pull the tape out, reinsert it, and VOILA! Retrospect kicks in with its "automatic" backup.

 

 

 

This happens with every different backup setting we have (Drive 1 on Tuesdays, Drive 2 on Thursdays, etc. etc.) and happen 100% of the time.

 

 

 

Any idea what could be the trouble? We clean the tape drive regularly and regularly reboot the machine to avoid the other troubles we were having with Retrospect / Seagate in the past. Also, we have only used Retrospect to complete our backups, so it is not possible that the machine is not recognizing data backed up by another source. Finally, we have only one tape drive that does all of the compressing, so there's none of the "compression/no compression" problems happening that are mentioned in the Knowledgebase.

 

 

 

Thanks! -Maty

[AmyJ]

The computer may be resetting/losing the connection to the drive. As this is happening on multiple tape sets, we can rule out the tapes. There are other variables to look at and systematically rule out to to find the root cause of the problem. The possibilities include:

 

 

 

1) another device on your USB bus is interfering with the tape drive's communication. Make sure the tape drive is plugged directly into the computer, and not connected to a USB hub.

 

 

 

2) you have a bad cable. Replace the USB cable that connects the tape drive to the computer.

 

 

 

3) the drivers are corrupted. Download the latest and greatest drivers for your device from the Seagate site.

 

 

 

4) the computer may be having a problem. Install Retrospect on another computer and try the tape drive there.

 

 

 

5) the drive may be defective. If you have implemented all of the preceeding steps and get failures on multiple tapes after changing cables and computers, then the drive, being the only factor that has not changed, is the most likely culprit.