Seagate tape backup troubles

Just started a new job and of course everything is in shambles as i start to work.

The tapedrive they have keeps failing on all back ups.

the drive is a seagate STT20000A using Veritas Backup Exec, i personally think the software causes way too much overhead for them.

The software is way to beefy for the company since it only really has 3 office employees that have to work with the server and being the only tech i need a quick fix


Along with everything the software won't let me format the tapes, just to get a freash start on one and see if thing clear up.


It would be nice if i could get my hands on some software that isn't so complicated just to clean up the tapes and start freash with a much simpler software...


I will attempt to work with what i have... any suggestions will be a GREAT help


MD

I was looking for something that would work for my home setup and came across Lonetar. It backed up the drive fine but since I have a crappy system (not enough memory) I couldn't test and see how it worked exactly. But it did run smoothly.

I didn't bother to ask what os your using but this is a linux solution.

If you think your tape drive has gone bad, you might check out Seagate's Tape Diags. Also, firmware updates might be available for your model.

Concerning backup software, go here to check out your product specs. It talks about using Yosemite Technologies TapeWare XD software.

Go here to check out TapeWare. Looks like there is a 30-day free trial available for download.

Let us know how it all ends up...Good Luck!

Another option: if this is an NT/2000 system, you can just use Winders Backup. I believe it was also available in win9x. I really like the fact that you can do everything by command line, so you can use scheduler or a batch file to start it.

Inability to format tapes could be head problems. Dirty heads, for instance.

The top is exposed to the interior of the case. Perhaps it's dusts.

If you have a cleaning tape, it would be another thing to try. Tape drives are to be cleaned considerably more often than most people realize. Depending on the amount of backups scheduled, I have seen twice a week as a requirement for cleaning...but once a week, or twice a month sounds like what your schedule would require. You can find all of that information from Seagate, per the specs on your drive.

Its a 2000 server machin...

I have my suspicians that the driveis bad or is getting a ton of EMI from surrounding equipment...



I am going to try a few more things before having them move the server or replace the drive....



It frustrates me that I was hired as their System Admin, and i cannot do what is included in my job discription. They are so damn afraid of loosing data.

There printers go down because of the tape back up and they are sure that i did something wrong and that the server is going to crash... uggggg!

Well, lol.... i took tusday off from work and the server crashed....


As of wednesday my boss was attempting to do a restore of our last good backup whice was on Monday.


I am starting to get frustrated at the fact that he is refusing to let me do the work and keeps calling his buddy who set the network up.

I just wonder why i am working there when something goes wrong i don;t fix it he wastes time having someone else do it....


Anyway the next few days will be interesting if things will be back up and running.

I suggest that instead of backing up every thing on the system to just back up data. Chances are if the server goes down you probably are better to just format reinstall the server and restore data rather than retore a corrupt OS and waste time (exactly what is happening now)



MD

I used to use Seagate Backup Exec Desktop 98 3.0a and remember that it crashed often for no reason. I have a lot of experience using a tape drive and the software for them. In this case I think there is a bug in the software.

I haven't used tapes for a long time mainly because they are slow. I think this is more suited to archiving than backup though its hard to remember. It reads W95 backup files. Mixing volumes on a tape from different software tends to not work.

Fraser.