Tape pops out

[selinathe1]

On one of our servers, 2minutes after I put the tape in, it just pops out. Why?
This is on Win2K, Sp4. BE 9.1

I accidentally posted this in a wrong forum. thx to those of you who pointed it out.



Thx
-selina

 

[nhbilly]

tape drive head might need to be clean/demagnetized...

 

[selinathe1]

I cleaned it this morning thinking it may help. But it doesn't...

Thx
-selina

 

[steveot]

Goto Tools - option - media management - set the overwrite protection none . Otherwise take a look at the media set and see what the rules are. Also check the job to see if appending, etc

 

[selinathe1]

Overwrite protection is set to "none".
In media set, append opetion is "infinate - allow append"

what values am i checking?

i also noticed just now, when i put the tape in, the light on the drive doesn't lit. (we are using HP surestore dat24. there are light which says 'tape' and another one says 'clean'). when i put a cleaning tape in, the same, no light unlike other servers. it doesn't seem to see any tape at all. is this a hardware issue?

sorry for simple the question but i'm still new to this...
please help.



Thx
-selina

 

[nhbilly]

check device manager and see if the drive is online?

 

[steveot]

No it the drive kicks out the tape no matter what you can try stopping the backup exec services and inserting a tape. If that doesnt work then its for sure hardware

 

[selinathe1]

um... i checked the hardware on device manager but it says the device is working properly...
i also checked it on HP site. They are saying that if both 'tape' and 'clean' lights are off, then it means the device is powered off. well, how could it be powered off if i can run inventory and test run successfully; and the device accepts and ejects the tape???
Is calling HP the only solution now?

Thx
-selina

 

[SQLBill]

1. is it a cleaning tape? This can happen by mistake.
2. is the tape write-protected? Check the little slider that locks the tape.
3. have you tried another tape?

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[SQLBill]

4. Have you used this tape before?
if not, is it made for HP tape drives?

I have bought tapes for my HP LTO drives and not had them work. I found out they were not compatible with HP drives. Usually, there is somewhere on the tape or tape package that will indicate it is compatible with HP drives. You might have to check with the vendor you purchased it from.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[selinathe1]

SQLBill
1. no, this is not a cleaning tape
2. no, the tape is not write-protected. the slide is set to the same as other tapes we use for other servers that we run successful backup jobs
3. Ya, I tried many difference tapes that we used to run backup with in the past, which are overwritable+appendable
4. Ya. Same as #3, we used to run successful backup jobs on these tapes.
The problem started around the last week of Jan.
I went to Computer Mangement > Storage > Removable Storage > Physical Locations. There I see 3 of HP C537A SCSI Sequential Device but Disabled. And I can't run any operation on them, like "inject" and "eject"... The one it's not Diabled has Drive State as "empty". I tried "inject" and completes successfully, but doesn't fix the problem.

What can I do now?

I have another server with almost the samw probem. But with this one, the tape doesn't come out. Other symptoms are the same....

Please help!!!

Thx
-selina

 

[SQLBill]

Have you tried rebooting your library and then rebooting the server?

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[beholder95]

I have the same problem with my Exabyte VX2 drive. I put the tape in and it pops out in 2 minutes.

If you go to media and then click on the tape and look at the stats below look for any Errors. Usually there are errors on a tape that does this so i assume its a bad tape.

Today I came in to find no email from Veritas - so i go to the server to check and see that the tape is out - so I put the tape in and it pops out - this tape is brand new! Could i have received a bad tape?

 

[selinathe1]

SQLBILL
i must be asking you a super simple question: how do i reboot a library? the server has been rebooted a couple of times since we started having this problem.

bholder95,
make sure that you are using the tapes that are compatable. It should say on the package.

Thx
-selina

 

[SQLBill]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but at one point you say there are three devices....that usually means you are using a tape library...multiple tape drives and multiple tapes. If it is just one tape drive in the server, then ignore my comment about rebooting the library.

Instead of just inserting the tape, open up Veritas Backup Exec, find the tape drive, right click on it and select IMPORT. That should open a prompt telling you to insert the tape. See if that works.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[selinathe1]

SQLBILL,
There is only one tape drive. But my point was that in Comptuer Mangerment, there was 3 of them, duppicates, with 2 of them being disabled. So I guess I'm ignoring that 'reboot the library' part of your advise.

As for selecting Import for the tape drive, I don't see it in the pulldown manu when I right-click the drive. All I see is 'Inventory' 'Paused' 'Enabled' 'Quicki Erase' 'Long Erase' 'Label Media...' 'Eject' 'Rename' 'Refresh' 'Properties'...
I do see 'Import media' on left side pane but it's disabled. Am I looking at a wrong place?

Thx
-selina

 

[steveot]

I dont see what Computer Managment and Removable Storage has to do with this if you using backup exec. Thats NTBACKUP way of controlling a tape device. Yes..there can be multiple entries in computer management. You would have to unload the veritas tape drivers and load microsoft or oem tape driver to get that to work in computer management. Then one of the drive you see in computer management you will be able to enable. The reason why you cant is becuase of the drivers and the Backup Exec services are probably start..thus Remoable Storage "ntbackup" and Backup Exec are fighting for contention of the device. If you stop the Removagle Storage Service and Backup Exec services and you insert a tape and it imediately eject..then it Hardware..period..since no application is controlling the device when you have those services stop. Or they could be the wrong tapes...why not contact HP?

 

[pinnerjim]

I had the very same problem when we upgraded from 8.6 to 9.1.
Veritas in their wisdom decided that the software would not be backwards compatible, so if the tape has been written to using an earlier software you have to erase the tape firstotherwise when the drive goes through the initial inventory, it does not recognise the media and ejects it.
I look after some 350 odd drives and once we had formatted all the tapes we no longer got the problem.
Hope this helps.

 

[selinathe1]

Sorry for the delay on my post.
First it didn't give me an option of formatting it. So since I didn't wanna erase the tape, I tried putting a brand new tape but the exact the same as the ones that we've been using. Still didn't give me an option of erasing it...

Does labeling media help?

I'm clueless on this thing... but please help!!! :_(


Thx
-selina

 

[SQLBill]

I think it's time to make use of your warranty and tech support. You might have a bad tape drive.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875