Backup not working - tape drive?

Hi

we backup all our servers using BESR8. This stores the backups on a bsckup server, which is then meant to copy them to a tape drive on another server.

The backup to the backup server works. The bit that doesnt work is the copy from backup 1 to tape drive.

i have checked in my computer and tape drive does not show up.it also fails to show up in device manager or removeable storage.

In backup exec 12 (this is uded to copy to tape) it shows the backup as a failure, the event logs show that the heads on the tape drives need cleaning, surely this would not affect it showing up in my computer or the rest?

thanks

On a lot of tape drives (like CD/DVD drives) there's a pin hole on the front. By bending out a paperclip you can power cycle the tape drive without powering down the whole server.

At this point you could try running the Add Hardware wizard to see if it re-detects the tape drive. If this still fails then unfortunately you'll need to power down the server and check any data cables. Whilst rebooting you could also go into the BIOS and see if the drive is detected at hardware level.

i use sony tape drives. if you are using sony then there is a free application called sony tape tool which can be quite helpful when trying to diagnose what is going on ...

the drive is an ilo