Onstream exchange Back up.

[LordGarfield]

Hi,
If I try to back up exchange with the ntbackup util from win2K it did not detected my tape.

I tried difrent ways to do it and even wait more than one hour when it shows me the screen it could take 60 seconds to detect new media.

I suspect that it gives me this problem becouse there is some data on the tape. but it can be erased. We don't need it anymore. I have lots of tapes like this but none not used one.

If I go to mycomputer (right click) manage. then I can find the tape streamer and the media in it but I can not prepare it becouse of write trouble. (the setting on the tape itself is NOT locked so normaly I'm able to write to it.)

so my question is: is there a way to format all of those tapes so that they are "unused".

and also is it normal that I can not simply see the tape like I see my CD rom drive and my hard disks?

tanks for your help.

 

[gwootton]

First, yes it is normal that the tape drive does NOT get assigned a drive letter. I'd like to know what model drive it is you are using, because with some of the ADR drives there is a program called Tape first aid that can recreate the file system, sort of like a low-level format for the tapes. If you see the drive in computer management, try right-clicking and telling it to inventory, that may work.
thanks,
Greg