An Inconsistency Was Encountered on the Requested Media" Error Mes

[Guest]

I am getting the above error message when trying to restore files from my
backup tapes but cannot find a solution to let me gain access to the data my
tapes contain. I am using a Sony Ait-2 (SDX-520C) tape drive. I have
updated the firmware and put the cleaning tape through.

I have been using Windows Backup to archive specific folders of images, (I
am a pro photographer) for each month, then deleting the originals from my
hard disk thinking my data was 'archived to tape' and therefore safe.

This error is pretty accurately described at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329682
but the solution offered does not work.

I must admit I can't understand why Backup allows one to create backups it
then knows it will not be able to read.

Can anyone offer any ideas on how I can restore my data? I have months of
work I can not get to and clients wanting images. Please help!

 

[David]

If you have more than one tape, try placing a different tape in then
what it askes for, from what the website you put in there it says that
the data maybe on a different tape that the tape it is asking for?

 

[Guest]

Thanks David. I tried that with tapes 1 through 4 but each time it prompts
for a specific tape - number 5 in this case. (There are only five tapes in
this set.) When I finally put tape 5 into the drive, it does seach for the
backup set but then displays the 'An inconsistency...' message with an Ok
button. Pressing Ok stops the restore process.

It doesn't even look for the specific backup set it needs on the other
tapes, it just seems to look at the tape number in the set.

It did occur to me that this might be a tape fault but exactly the same
problem occurs with a different set of four tapes.

 

[Guest]

Further to my previous message, I selected all 11 backup sets to restore
thinking it might start at tape one but again it asks for the last tape in
the set, which is tape five. So this doesn't work either. That means all my
work since February is currently unavailable. I hope someone out there has a
solution to this one...

 

[R. McCarty]

Tape backups have to have a "Catalog" to know where specific data
is located on each member of the saveset media. Some backup/restore
facilities have a /missingtape qualifier that allows you to access data on
individual member tapes without having access to the catalog.

 

[Malke]

Tape backups have to have a "Catalog" to know where specific data
is located on each member of the saveset media. Some backup/restore
facilities have a /missingtape qualifier that allows you to access
data on individual member tapes without having access to the catalog.

"Why I hate tape backups" by Malke. If you don't get anywhere with the
suggestions you've received and are desperate to get the data back, try
a professional data recovery firm. The one I like is DriveSavers
(www.drivesavers.com) but there are others like Ontrack and Seagate. A
data recovery firm's services are not inexpensive but if this is a
business it might be worth it. Only you can decide.

Malke