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Power Vault 124T Retired Cleaning Tape
Hi all,
I have just taken over a site running backup exec 2010 with a powervault-124t and around 2 weeks ago all the tapes description status was "end marker unreadable". After doing some research it points back to Hardware and the cleaning media which makes sense now as I went on-site and the drive drive says "Cleaning media retired". However, I cannot find the tape drive in any of the slots as they haven't been labelled.
Things I have tried;
- Pulled out both left/right magazines and cannot physically see the cleaning tape.
- Tried to configure a new cleaning tape but cannot find the setting to override the old cleaning media
- On the tape drive > Configuration > Cleaning Media > Auto-cleaning > Chose the new slot and it says Destination full?
- Within backup exec, reinstalled drivers and updated the firmware.
- Performed diag tests on the tape drive, all OK
I cannot get a tape to mount or backup and feel it has something tro do with dirty heads on the tape drive but cannot physically locate the old cleaning tape. If anyone could point me in the right direction or provide me with some tips on how to troubleshoot further with this, that would be greatly appreciated.
DELL-Sam L
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November 16th, 2015 05:00
Hello ChoppaDog,
Here is a link to our Compatiable Matrix & if you look on page 20-22 it shows you what cleaning media looks like compared to a Data Media. http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/Common/PowerVault_User%27sGuide20_en-us.pdf If you look at all your media and you don’t have any clean media in the PV124T then you will need to purchase an LTO cleaning media. Once you have replaced the cleaning media then you may want to clean the drive 2 times the first time as if the heads are really dirty then a single cleaning may not get them all the way cleaned. Also you can insert the cleaning media into a slot and leave it in the PV124T and mark it as a cleaning slot & then when the drive needs to be cleaned it will grab the media & clean the drive. You will also need to take note of the slot that you insert the cleaning media in as you will also need to mark the slot as a cleaning slot in Backup Exec.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.
BHOlson
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July 11th, 2018 08:00
I inserted a cleaning tape 5 weeks ago and it worked fine for the first 4 weeks. On the 5th week, it failed with an expired or bad cleaning media. This is the second tape this has happened on.
According toe the cleaning cartridge, the number of cleaning is drive dependent with a maximum number of 50 cleanings. I an understand getting 30-35 before the tape would expire, but 4 is troubling. Anyone have any thoughts on what could be happening?
Backup jobs are completing successfully, it is the cleaning tape that is giving me trouble.
DELL-Sam L
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July 11th, 2018 11:00
Hello BHOlson,
I am guessing that you are getting this alert from your backup software? If that is the case, then you will want to check to make sure that your number of cleanings is set to 50. I have seen in some backup software’s that the number of cleanings is set to 20 or 25. Also, are you using a cleaning barcode on your cleaning media? If so, are you reusing the same barcode as this can cause the media to show as expired.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.