Re: Problems with tape media identification in RSM

Well, your response did lead me to the solution, though it wasn't exactly on. The third party backup software did install a new supported media label type, but somehow the installation got screwed up and the DLL that the registry key was referring to was gone! I ran a repair of the backup software, and boom...media is identifying properly now.

Thanks for replying, this one has been frustrating me for a while now.

Dan

cristalink wrote:
Apparently, you have a third party Media Label Library that screws the things up. See for example http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295159
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http://www.firestreamer.com


"Daniel Barr" <dbarr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:u%23K0RMf$GHA.3308@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

I am running a fairly new Windows 2003 R2 Standard system, using RSM with a third-party backup application. We've successfully run 3 backups now, but since then I have been running into a major problem with identifying tapes. We've already replaced our autoloader, and are still having the same problem with the replacement. Firmware & drivers are all up-to-date.

Whenever I inventory our Quantum SuperLoader 3 (SDLT600), all of the tapes go into the Unrecognized media pool. If I right-click and Free them, they do each get loaded, written to, and placed in the Free Media pool. However, if I re-inventory at that point, they all go back to Unrecognized, with the format column showing "RAW".

If, after freeing them, I attempt to have the backup program run a job, it does attempt to mount the first free tape, but the mount fails with this error: "Unexpected on-medium identifier".

I took one of the tapes to another machine with a standalone drive, inserted the tape, and RSM (also 2003 Std, but not R2) on that server successfully identified it as Free Media, with format "Removable Storage Manager".

I then took that standalone drive over to the problem server, cable and all, and had the same problem identifying media. So I believe that effectively eliminates a hardware problem.

Has anyone run into something similar? I've done a lot of searching with no luck. I really need to get this working again.

Thanks,
Dan Barr
Network & Security Manager
Mercer Insurance Group


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