Jeffesmi
asked on
NTBACKUP giving "specified media cannot be found" error message and failing on DAT tape drive
Hello,
I have a client running Windows Server 2003. I'm using NTBACKUP.EXE to do a backup to an external USB drive and a DAT tape drive. The USB backup string looks like this (not I've added a return after each forward slash to aid in my reading of the message):
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntback
/n "Thursday Full Backup.bkf created 10/30/2006 at 12:40 PM"
/d "Set created 10/30/2006 at 12:40 PM"
/n "Thursday Full Backup.bkf created 10/30/2006 at 12:40 PM"
/v:yes
/r:no
/rs:no
/hc:off
/m normal
/j "Thursday to USB Drive"
/l:s
/f "E:\Thursday Full Backup.bkf"
The above backup works fine. No problems. The Friday backup that goes to tape looks like this:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntback
/n "Friday Full Backup Tape"
/d "Set created 10/30/2006 at 2:59 PM"
/n "Friday Full Backup Tape"
/v:yes
/r:no
/rs:no
/hc:on
/m normal
/j "Friday Full Backup 2006"
/l:f
/g "ab3bfcd0-6cd8-475e-8520-f
I'm consentantly getting failure messages that, "Backup Status: The operation was not performed because the specified media cannot be found. If I Start NTBACKUP and call up the job manually, it works fine. If I goto scheduled tasks and select run, it fails with the listed message. To me, it looks as if it has something to do with the tape handling, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm pretty sure the tape has been formatted, but probably belongs to another set. Is there any way to make NTBACKUP overwrite the tape no matter what when it does a backup?
Thanks,
Jeffery Smith
Any ideas on how to make this NTBACKUP job:
- Automatically overwrite any tape put into the drive
I have a client running Windows Server 2003. I'm using NTBACKUP.EXE to do a backup to an external USB drive and a DAT tape drive. The USB backup string looks like this (not I've added a return after each forward slash to aid in my reading of the message):
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntback
/n "Thursday Full Backup.bkf created 10/30/2006 at 12:40 PM"
/d "Set created 10/30/2006 at 12:40 PM"
/n "Thursday Full Backup.bkf created 10/30/2006 at 12:40 PM"
/v:yes
/r:no
/rs:no
/hc:off
/m normal
/j "Thursday to USB Drive"
/l:s
/f "E:\Thursday Full Backup.bkf"
The above backup works fine. No problems. The Friday backup that goes to tape looks like this:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntback
/n "Friday Full Backup Tape"
/d "Set created 10/30/2006 at 2:59 PM"
/n "Friday Full Backup Tape"
/v:yes
/r:no
/rs:no
/hc:on
/m normal
/j "Friday Full Backup 2006"
/l:f
/g "ab3bfcd0-6cd8-475e-8520-f
I'm consentantly getting failure messages that, "Backup Status: The operation was not performed because the specified media cannot be found. If I Start NTBACKUP and call up the job manually, it works fine. If I goto scheduled tasks and select run, it fails with the listed message. To me, it looks as if it has something to do with the tape handling, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm pretty sure the tape has been formatted, but probably belongs to another set. Is there any way to make NTBACKUP overwrite the tape no matter what when it does a backup?
Thanks,
Jeffery Smith
Any ideas on how to make this NTBACKUP job:
- Automatically overwrite any tape put into the drive
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ASKER
Sorry Zenith,
I still haven't tried it. I moved the points from 250 to 300 for your patience. I'll give it a shot as soon as I can with the /UM switch and post an update if I can.
Thanks,
Jeffery Smith
I still haven't tried it. I moved the points from 250 to 300 for your patience. I'll give it a shot as soon as I can with the /UM switch and post an update if I can.
Thanks,
Jeffery Smith
Sorry for not replying to your earlier post, I must have missed the email notification!
Yeah there aren't too many people using ntbackup these days to backup to tape for the exact reason you've come across. There are also a few other features that ntbackup is missing that are more and more and more important these days, such as notification of backup failures (it can be done, but not with a click of a button!). It works flawlessly to external storage etc., just not great for tapes!
To be honest the only backup software I ever use is Symantec BackupExec, it will work perfectly with tapes etc.
Yeah there aren't too many people using ntbackup these days to backup to tape for the exact reason you've come across. There are also a few other features that ntbackup is missing that are more and more and more important these days, such as notification of backup failures (it can be done, but not with a click of a button!). It works flawlessly to external storage etc., just not great for tapes!
To be honest the only backup software I ever use is Symantec BackupExec, it will work perfectly with tapes etc.
ASKER
No one else seems to have any input. I haven't tried you suggestion yet, but I will. Regaurdless, the points are your unless someone else posts. I guess not many people try to use the NTBACKUP program. Do you know of any free or very low cost alternatives that are decent for single server backup? It's a small business and they don't need anything fancy.
Best Wishes,
Jeffery Smith