Restoring problem

[Steeb]

I'm using 4.3 woth OS 9.0.4 on a Beige G3, tape drive is Skydata with a Sony AIT DC AIT-2 mechanism. The drive is cleaned on a regular basis. Part way through the 15th 50 gig tape appending (backing up to) a master storageset I get the prompt " bad media/tape/heads need cleaning can't add to this tape please insert new tape". I put in a new tape (Tape 16)and the backup continues until finished. Only problem is that the 23 gig that did get backed up on tape 15 can't be restored. The tape drive goes into an endless search mode but never stops to restore data. I've tried all the storageset repair functions but to no avail. I can restore data from before and after this tape but nothing from tape 15. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[AmyJ]

Mark the tape(member) as missing under Configure > Backup Sets > Configure > Members.

 

The tape sounds like it is damaged and no longer usable. If the data needs to be recovered because it only exists on the damaged tape you will need to consult with a data recovery specialist. This can be very expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars).

 

Computer Conversions (http://www.computer-conversions.com/) is very familiar with Retrospect.

[goosfraba]

Hi guys,

 

I have similar problems... I have a couple of tapes giving me the same "dirty heads etc." once in a while but occasionally they let me restore files. Especially this is known to happen during restore of single files (small files, ~2mb). What could be the cause of that? Is there a way to "clean" the tapes? Of course I use the cleaning tape but maybe not often enough?

 

Is there a generally approved cleaning cycle which is known to be "the best". I have two, under one year old, HP DLT 8000 drives which are both in use on daily bases (overnight backups and daily restores).

 

Any help is better than none..

 

-G