Cannot set up tape drive

Error code

Product

Applies to

BA4111

BackupAssist

BackupAssist v5.3 and later

Description

This error occurs due to BackupAssist not being able to access the tape drive configured within the backup job correctly.

Resolution

Resolution 1 – Check the Backup User Identity's permissions

Check that your Backup User Identity has been set and has the required access. To view your current Backup User Identity, select the Settings tab > Backup User Identity and you'll see the following dialogue box appear.

Backup User Identity

Note: For BackupAssist 10.4.2 and earlier, the Backup User Identity is used for all backup jobs and the account may have been created with custom access levels. For 10.4.3 and later, a Backup User Identity is only required for Jobs that have a NAS destination or the SQL add-on, and in these cases, the Backup User Identity should be a member of the Administrators group.

What to check

  • For BackupAssist 10.4.2 or earlier - check that the account is still selected, enabled and has the required access.
  • For BackupAssist 10.4.3 and later, check that the account is still selected, enabled and a member of the administrators group.
  • To check the permissions properly, you can log into the backup server using the Backup User Identity account and check that you can read and write to the backup destination without any authentication requests or errors.
  • If backup account's password is changed in Windows, it will need to be changed in BackupAssist.

To learn more, see Backup user identity

Resolution 2 – Check that the tape drive is installed correctly

If the tape drive is not installed correctly, BackupAssist may not be able to access it.

Check that the tape drive appears correctly within Windows. To do this it is recommended to open device manager with the steps outlined by Microsoft at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/open-device-manager#1TC=windows-7.

You should be able to see your tape drive listed as shown in the example below.

Device manager

Resolution 3 – Update any drivers or firmware associated with your tape drive.

The following Network Device advice can also be applied to tape devices.

If you are using a Network Device

Windows can sometimes state that hardware is working when you check it in Device Manager. However, due to outdated firmware and drivers, issues such as underperformance and failing functionality can occur.

Try upgrading the firmware and drivers for the backup destination (in particular if it is a NAS device). You may need to do this by visiting the manufacture's website as they provide firmware and hardware updates as downloadable files.

It is also recommended that you download and run any hardware diagnostic tools, which help perform consistency checks on the destination and attempt to find any errors.

If you are using a Local Device

When backing up to a local device (and getting this warning in the backup report) it is recommended that you run a consistency check (chkdsk scan) on the drive and also a defragmentation process.

Please review the following document from Microsoft on the use of chkdsk: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee872425.aspx

If any of the problems described in the article are occurring, reschedule one of the processes to a later time to avoid the conflict.

More information on defragmentation is located at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/improve-performance-defragmenting-hard-disk#1TC=windows-7.

Resolution 4 – Check the physical environment

Check the physical environment around the tape drive. We have found that some hardware (such as some SCSI cards) is not supported by Server 2008 based operating systems.

These are hard to detect as the tape drive shows up as functioning correctly within Device Manager.

Other things to check include cabling, that the tape drive is powered on and that a tape has been inserted into the tape drive.

Resolution 5 – Set BackupAssist to Auto detect the block size to use with your tape drive.

If BackupAssist is incorrectly configured to use a larger or smaller block size than the tape drive is configured to, this can cause accessibility issues as well.

Try setting the block size to Auto detect by following the steps below:

  1. Open BackupAssist.
  2. Select Manage Backup Jobs
  3. Select the backup job.
  4. Select Edit from the top menu
  5. Select Destination from the options on the left
  6. Tick the option for Auto detect

    7. Destination : Tape drive options

Resolution 6 – Try running the backup to a different tape drive / swap the tape drive to another machine

We recommended that you try to isolate the issue further by changing the environment to see if the error is repeated or not.

  • Firstly, you should swap the tape out with a new tape and re-run the backup. Should the error persist, then we can determine that the tape is not at fault.
  • Should the same problem occur with multiple tapes, then try installing the tape drive on a completely different system and run a backup from there. If the error occurs on multiple machines, there is likely to be issues with the tape drive itself.
  • If the tape drive works on another machine, it is likely to be an issue with the connector that the tape drive is connected to the machine with.

Resolution 7 – Contact the hardware manufacturer for further assistance

If all steps above have been performed and the tape drive is still unable to be configured correctly, it is recommended that you contact the hardware manufacturer for further information as the steps above (if performed correctly) will have isolated the issue down to being a hardware fault.

Last updated

Created

Further assistance

01st April 2015

22nd Feb 2010

BackupAssist Support page