Win2k says new tapes are write protected?

[Richard Hayter]

I'm using an HP-surestore 40x6 DDS autoloader, and when I installed a set a five new tapes, MS removable storage says that it can't write a free media header because the tapes are write protected. Of course, they are not. Any ideas??? Thanks!

[Helen French]

Hi,

Check the 'job queue waiting" in the utility. If found something, then abort it. Try dismount the tapes and mount it again. Check whether you can write to the tape with any backup utility ( eg: Veritas Backup Exec)

HTH,
Shiju

[Richard Hayter]

Thanks for the suggestions, but no luck. I cleared out the work queue and operator requests, remounted the tape, and got the same thing - "media is write protected". I can't believe its something wrong with the tapes... I'm using the same kind in other machines with stand-alone drives, and they work fine. When I put the new tapes in, the autoloader recognized them as new media and put them in the "unkown" media pool. I then tried to move them to the "free" pool, and that's when I got the message. The status of the tapes is "idle, unprepared". But when I try to prepare them, I get the "write protected" message. My head hurts ;-)