Win 2K Server not reading tape in tape drive

[LCannon]

I have just installed Win 2K Server onto a Dell with a tape drive. The OS sees the drive, Conner CTT8000-A, but when I run Backup, it doesn't even attempt to read the drive and keeps telling me, "Required Media Missing. There is no unused media available with the selected type...." I have a new formatted tape in the drive and I'm able to read that same tape on another computer, another Dell. Any help would be appricated.

 

[Ashaman074]

Make sure that you have the latest updates/service packs. There were some issues regarding removeable media & the backup program as I remember.

I had similar problems quite a while back, I found that if I ejected the tape and re-inserted it, the media information would be refreshed and I could then continue.

It was a very irratating initially, fortunately it has now been working properly for almost a year.

 

[LCannon]

I have the latest service pack, 2, and all the other patches from their web site, but still no go. I tried taking the tape out and putting it back in, but no go, either. It still says the say thing.

 

[rcunning]

You may be dealing with a firmware issue. I had similiar problem with IBM Netfinity 5000 servers and Tape drives under WinNT 4.0. The problem turned out to be a firmware upgrade. Check this site

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/tape/mafw_lvl.html

 

[Guest_imported]

Did you go to options of ntbackup and selected the option to draw all new import medi to backup pool?

 

[faceh]

Here is what you can do to verify your tape drive.

First reboot the machine and make sure you are getting a scsi ID for your tape drive.
Make sure your tape drive is the only device on your scsi chain and you have no other devices.
In your operating system if you have any back up software such as veritas or arcserve disable it and try doing a backup from windows backup software.
Talk to dell see if they have a utility that allows you to run diags on the tape drive if its dells.

Faisal
MCSE, CCNA