Colorado 8Gbe, Colorado Backup II and Win2k

[Ross Addinall]

I have recently re-built my PC as a win2k machine after a hard disk failure. I am trying to get my Colorado 8Gbe to work with Win2k.

System:
Win2K Professional with SP3
HP Colorado Backup II V9 downloaded from
http://www.rountree-inc.com/downloads.html
HP Colorado 8GB Extrenal drive

Symptoms:
The backup seems to work OK, but then duriung the verify phase, I get an error and the verify stops.

Already tried:
Three different tapes, with an erase followed by an initialize and then a re-tension as part of the backup.

Questions:
1. I have seen other questions that look similar to this on this forum - is there a known issue with the drives and Win2kSP3 ?

2. I saw a comment that it is possible to change the tape-speed in V9 to improve reliability ? How do I do this ? IS there a known reliability issue at "normal" speed ?

3. Is there a more recent version of the HP Colorado Backup Software out there?

Thanks for any help.

Ross

[Lewis Finch · Accepted solution]

Hi Ross,
There are no issues with SP3 that I am aware of. Change the tape drive speed to low. Select the tape drive in Device Manager and choose properties. You should see a "Speed Setting" option. Make sure your parallel port mode is set to EPP in the BIOS. There are no newer versions of CBII that support win 2k. Hope this helps.

[Ross Addinall]

Lewis,

Thanks for this reply. I'll give this a go and post a reply back here about how I get on.

Thanks,

Ross

[CA788093]

Lewis:
Ross didn't specify whether his tape drive is internal or external. My preference is internal, so I assumed his was the same.

Your comment about EPP suggests Ross's tape drive is external, and uses a parallel port for information exchange. Do you agree?

That Ross complied so readily implies his tape drive is external. Right Ross?

Or does that EPP specification have some relevance if one's drive is internal?

Thanks,
John

[Ross Addinall]

John,

Yes indeed, my tape drive is external.

Lewis,

I had a look at the properties for the tape drive from the device manager. I could not see any place where I could set the tape speed. There were two tabs, one labelled "General" and the other "Driver Details".

It shows the device as being the HP Colorado 8GBe 2.05. The driver that I had installed at the time was 5.00.2159.1. I had downloaded the latest file from the HP website "win2kdrivers.exe", so uninstalled the device and the parallel port driver and installed these new drivers for both the parallel port "epatap2k.inf & .sys" and the the tape drive "hptape2k.inf and qic157.sys". The tape driver is now version 5.0.2183.1. Still no tape speed control options.

I also copied the .inf files into windows\inf, as suggested in the Readme, as they were not there.

I re-ran a backup and verify and got the following message:
"An error occurred while reading the media. The media cannot be read or contains an unknown media format. If the media contains valid data, please verify the device connections or try changing the device settings. Invalid data (4616 1208)"

I have checked connections, and I am not aware of any device settings. The only thing that I have not checked is the settings in my BIOS for the parallel port. I'll do that tonight.

Thanks,

Ross

[Lewis Finch]

Hi Ross,

There should be a device under SCSI in device manager that lists an EPAT shuttle driver. It's been a very long time time since I have seen the software so my memory is hazy. The speed setting may be located there. Also the newest firmaware for the 8GB should be 2.08 and can be downloaded on our web site.

[Ross Addinall]

Lewis,

Great news - I managed to do a successful backup last night. This will make you groan, but I think the problem was that I had my parallel port set to normal, I actually switched to ECP/EPP. I cannot be sure if this was the only issue, as I have also flashed the firmware to version 2.08 from 2.05.

So success. I have still not found the tape speed setting. In my device manager under Tape Drives, I have the Colorado 8GB External, under system I have the SCM PPort ATAPI Adapter and the VID_* thingy, but none of these have the tape speed setting. IS it possible that this is only available on internal drives ??

Thanks for your help.