How can I get NTBackup to write the data to the tape without giving me errors such as, cannot locate the specified media or backup device, or the operation was not performed because no storage media was specified.

I have a nightly backup scheduled in NTBackup that writes the data to a Seagate 4mm DDS tape. When I manually create the job using NTBackup, and specify the tape to use, it adds the /G "<GUID>" switch to it.

How can I set it up so that NTBackup writes to the tape, regardless of what tape's in it? For instance, when you insert Friday's tape on Friday, the backups will still run on Saturday & Sunday? This works in Backup Exec, but NTBackup & Backup Exec perform exactly the same for what I need it for, so I'd rather not dip into my budget for that 1 added feature.

Here's what I've used:

ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Test.bks" /n "Full Backup" /d "Full Backup" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:on /m normal /j "Test" /l:f /P "4mm DDS"

After doing an inventory of the tape in Backup Exec, the Media Label & Description are both Full Backup, but the above script fails with "Cannot locate the specified media or backup device. This backup operation will terminate."

When it launches, NTBackup appears, it opens up the tape drive dialog with 'mounting media' being displayed. After it checks the tape, the job cancels.

Can anyone help me out with this?

my first question is Why in the hell are you using NTBackup??
I take it since its a nightly backup this is for a company, and if so. use some software that has been developed specifically for that.
Sorry for not helping, but i have had no luck with microsoft backup software, and have only heard horror stories from others.

Did you know that NTBackup is Backup Exec Lite, actually developed by Veritas?

I finally got it working where it doesn't care what tape's in it. Got rid of the /g swith, added /p "4mm DDS" /UM. Seems to be working the way I wanted it to work, but only time will tell.

The original problem I was having was that the backup data exceeded the uncompressed limit of the tape. Assuming that NTBackup doesn't utilize compression, I tried Backup Exec 10d. Unfortunately, it yeilded the exact same results, using either software or hardware compression. I later found that the data doesn't compress well, it's mostly PDF's, and other already compressed files, so there's no way the tapes will acheive the 72 GB compressed size.

NTBackup does have a checkbox to use hardware compression where available, but it didn't appear to be working, or maybe the tape drive isn't using compression. I assumed that since it's a Seagate DAT72, that a 36/72 tape would compress to 72 GB, but it won't even come close. If I exclude the PDF's, it compresses pretty well, squeezing 32 GB down to 22 GB.