tape restore error

[rudy_4]

i have a problem with a tape using windows backup utility when i try to restore, it starts to restore then gives me
Error: The media in the drive must be erased before it can be used.
i installed veritas backup and it gave me something else:
An inconsistency was encountered on the storage media in COMPAQ 1
please any help thanks alot

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Try restoring using the same drive you used to backup. Will it be successful?
Try backing up and just after it restoring. Will it work?
Try checking drive and tapes with HP LTT http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/ltt/index.html . Generate support ticket and look into it
Eugeny

[Stuart Whitby]

If this is the same tape that fails to recover from 2 different backup utilities (I take it you're doing backups from each of these before performing a test restore - they'll probably be using different methods of writing to tape) then it's likely that you have bad media. It may not get noticed during backup because there's no way to verify that data was written successfully without reading the tape unless you get a 2-headed drive.

I'm not aware of any of these existing though...

[Allan_24]

In my experieced about this, using Windows based backup utilities, Before I make any backup job or restoring archieve data, I make sure to establish first the media into "available" and "mounted" state before using it to NTbackup(if your using 2k,2003 or XP). By doing this just go to COMPUTER MANAGEMENT then under Removable Storage you can now configure all this things. Make you don't use any 3RD party software before doing anything.
Co'z some 3rd party software might or usualy disable this kind of in-house services after they installed from the system.

Hope this can help.