Similar problem with Win 2K

[CA835893]

I have just purchased (ebay) an external 8GB Colorado travan drive. Got it all hooked up, system recognizes it via the parallel port on my Dell (Win 2K SP3) but neither Backup myPC nor CB II will enable me to read the catalog. The error produced is "Unrecoverable hardware error".

I know the drive works, the guy who sent it to me was using it fine a few days ago.

Are there any fixes?

[Tim Martin_3]

Alex-
Please see this link for my instructions on how to load the drivers on w2k. Since w2k probably already installed some drivers, you may need to remove the device from your system before you follow the procedure.
http://www.joltcity.com/HPColorado/HPColoradoW2KDriversInstall.htm
You did not state which version of software you are using. You need HP Colorado Backup II Version 9 or higher for Win 2K Pro.
I have used this version with some success. However, my old friend "Disaster Recovery" is no longer reliable with Win 2K Pro.
I think this is mostly a Microsoft thing, having to do with how the OS is distributed on CD, etc.
There have been some posts here about where to download Colorado Backup II since it is no longer available on the HP website.

According to some recent posts on this forum, try:
http://www.rountree-inc.com/downloads.html

Ti

[Tim Martin_3]

Alex-

If you load the drivers as I described, then BackupMyPC will work as well.

Still don't rely on the Disaster Recovery. It won't work. And Stomp doesn't really support the external Colorado drives at this time, even though some of their literature says that they do. I think it works OK, except for the Disaster Recovery.

Tim

[CA835893]

Tim

Thanks for your friendly replies. I did as you suggested and followed every step -- still no luck. I even uninstalled Backup my PC and re-installed CBII v9.0, rebooted, and this too failed to overcome the hurdle of "Backup device reported an unrecoverable hardware error".

Obviously, the tape unit is lying! It installs and tests fine and, as I said, the guy who sold it to me said it was working fine when it left him.

So I'm stuck -- the software available just refuses to talk to the tape unit.

Do you have any other suggestions or recommendations?

Many thanks.

[Tim Martin_3]

Alex-
Download the tapediag.exe program for this device from the HP website.

If it finds the tape drive, it will show you its serial number and firmware revision. Then you can attempt the diagnostics including the write/read test. (You will need a tape cartridge that can be overwritten; preferably more than one, in case you have an obscure media problem.)

Also, you may want to download the drive firmware and rev it up to the latest rev (v2.08, I think).

Tim

[CA835893]

Tim

When my tape drive mounts it does so with firmware rev 2.06. Do you know how I go about getting a firmware upgrade? Is there a program that does it?

Thanks,
Alex

[Tim Martin_3]

Alex-
Both the tapediag.exe and the firmware update downloads are available on the HP website.

If I recall correctly, both downloads are an executable that you have to run to unzip the included files. After that there is a separate .exe and some helper files for each.

Please run the tapediag to help complete the diagnose your problem. I'm pretty sure it uses the installed drivers to talk to the device. So it is a good checkout of both your hardware and software drivers installation.

There is a reasonable chance that your tape drive is no good. Perhaps it only appeared good to someone else since windows seemed to identify it.
After all that, run the firmware upgrade.

Tim

[CA835893]

Tim

Thanks again for the suggestions. I have attempted to run the tapediag.exe program and it doesn't even get as far as reading the tape drive, it says "No tape present" and it doesn't even run the self-diagnostic, even though a tape is present.

The cable is brand new and my laptop's parallel port works just fine, so I don't think they're the problem.

That leaves the tape drive -- the funny thing is, the diagnostic utility correctly reads the date of manufacture and the serial # of the unit, it just can't seem to read/write to the unit.

This is really exasperating -- would you happen to have any other ideas in your bag of tricks?

Many, many thanks again for all your help.

Alex

[Tim Martin_3]

Alex-
This sounds like a bad tape drive to me. I have seen these exact symptoms before more than once for both external and internal HP Colorado drives.

I have seen these units mysteriously go bad like this when they were working just a few days before.

Since the diagnostic software reads the tape serial number and firmware version, I believe your installation is OK.

As a last ditch effort, you might try to rev the firmware up to v2.08. HP support used to recommend this for drives with problems as a last effort before they would issue an RMA for replacement for a drive that was under warranty.

Also, check the little white sticker inside your unit where the tape is inserted. It has the drive serial number and date of manufacture. You will need a good light to read it. If by any chance the unit is less than 2 years old, perhaps you can get HP to replace it. Otherwise, if your seller had a DOA guarantee, take advantage of it.

e1-02r9-dtnf-ckf5@emailias.com

Tim