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Trying to Recover Data From Old Backup Exec Tapes

 
saberman
Occasional Visitor

Trying to Recover Data From Old Backup Exec Tapes

I have been tasked with recovering data from an old Windows XP machine with an HP C1537A DDS3 tape drive.  The machine used Backup Exec to create the tapes.  In trying to recover the data I constantly get an error that says the data on the tape is inconsistent.  I tried to run the HP analysis utility but it said the error log of the drive was full and it would be necessary to do a firmware load to clear it.  I therefore loaded the lastest firmware.

 

I ran the HP analysis utilities using one of the tapes as a scratch tape (to write over):

Test 'DDS Drive Assessment Test' started on device 'HP C1537A' at address '6/0.0.0'
Please reload your media. Do you wish to continue?
|__ Analysis Results
    ||__ DDS Drive Assessment Test version V08.11.2006
    ||__ Device Analysis for DDS Drives
    ||__ Firmware rev 'L411' is up-to-date for 'C1537A' as of Wed May 25 19:00:00 2005.
    ||__ You appear to have used tapes not designed for this drive.
    ||__ Please use tapes that are compatible with your product.
    ||__ Unsupported tapes have been inserted 6 times.
    ||__ You appear to be using very old tapes not designed for this drive.
    ||__ Non-MRS tapes tapes have been inserted 3 times.
    ||__ There were 9 rules checked.
    ||__ Testing has completed and no problems were found.

 

The tape that was used in the analysis was a maxlell HS-4/125s DDS3 tape -- the same type that was used to create the backup tapes.

 

Why does the drive think I am using "very old tapes not designed for this drive"?  The tapes were witten to by this drive.

 

What is a "Non-MRS" tape?

 

The end results appears to be that "no problems were found" but Backup Exec reports that the tapes have inconsistent data.

 

Any suggestions on how to make the tapes readable by Backup Exec would be appreciated.

 

I am using Backup Exec 9.1 Rev 4691.  Please do not suggest using a later version as this is the latest version that (1) will run on a Windows XP Pro box and (2) that supports the tape drive.

 

P.S. This thread has been moved from Tape Libraries and Drives to Tape Backup (Small and Medium Business). -HP Forum Moderator

2 REPLIES 2
RbBsmn
Regular Advisor

Re: Trying to Recover Data From Old Backup Exec Tapes

I think for these drives only HP branded tapes are supported, but will have to check that to be sure. Can't remember running into this issue with this drive before.
Also with the drive assessment test you write data on a different tape, so for this issue thats not that relevant.
Could you upload a support log and the drive assessment test, since you already ran it anyway?
Did my post help? Thank me with kudo's! :)
saberman
Occasional Visitor

Re: Trying to Recover Data From Old Backup Exec Tapes

>Also with the drive assessment test you write data on a different tape, so for this issue thats not that relevant.
The tape was one I had tried to read from earlier -- it is part of the same set.  I decided to burn one that had daily incremental backups on it instead of a month start that had fully backups on it.

 

>Could you upload a support log and the drive assessment test, since you already ran it anyway?
I included the output of the drive assement test in my first post.  Where do I find a support log?