All former Backup Tapes have become unrecognizable

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Guest

ALL my backup tapes have become unrecognizable. They were working perfectly
fine March 12. On March 19, Microsoft Backup version 5 no longer recognizes
media that I've been using for over two years.

I usually rotate between several tapes to perform backups every few days. I
use one tape for a month then swith to another so that I can go back at least
three months at any given time.

NONE of my tapes are now recognizable. I would blame it on the tape if it
was just one, but its ALL my tapes. I performed Windows Updates March 14.
Could the updates be the cause?

Microsoft Backup wants to reformat my tapes, which would destroy the data.
For daily backups, I just append the data. At the beginning of a new month,
I completely replace the four month old data. This has worked great for two
years until now.... any ideas???
 
After more research, one article suggested the tape drive be cleaned.
CLEANING THE TAPE DRIVE WORKED!!!!!!! I used a standard cleaning tape and
everything is back to normal. I'm going to start a regular tape drive
cleaning schedule in addition to the backups. I had just never given it much
thought before. Any ideas on how often a drive should be cleaned if I use it
approximately 10 to 15 times a month?
 
Thanks Bob, the links were very helpful.

--
swatfor
Windows 2000 Server
Pentium IV, 2 Ghz
1 GB RAM
 
swatfor said:
After more research, one article suggested the tape drive be cleaned.
CLEANING THE TAPE DRIVE WORKED!!!!!!! I used a standard cleaning
tape and everything is back to normal. I'm going to start a regular
tape drive cleaning schedule in addition to the backups. I had just
never given it much thought before. Any ideas on how often a drive
should be cleaned if I use it approximately 10 to 15 times a month?
Click to expand...

About once a month.

Cheers,

Cliff
 
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