Backup fails with event 17055, 18210 BackupTapeFile::UnloadTape: PrepareTape

I started to get failed backups with the following error in event
viewer
Event 17055
18210 : BackupTapeFile::UnloadTape: PrepareTape failure on backup
device '\\.\Tape0'. Operating system error 1(Incorrect function.).
The backup runs for a few hours then fails
I changed 4 tapes (all new), used a different SDLT drive... Same
result
Can't find a clue anywhere...
Any help is greatly appreciated
Dave
In order to better clarify the problem
1) SQL2000 on Win2003 Adv Srv
2) Here's the last lines of the job history
[...] (Message 4035) Processed 17151872 pages for database 'P01',
file 'P01DATA2' on file 4. [SQLSTATE 01000] (Message 4035) 100
percent backed up. [SQLSTATE 01000] (Message 3211) Processed 33070
pages for database 'P01', file 'P01LOG1' on file 4. [SQLSTATE 01000]
(Message 4035) Operation on device '\\.\Tape1' exceeded retry count.
[SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 3230) BACKUP DATABASE is terminating
abnormally. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 3013). The step failed.
It seems the db backup has been 100% completed but in some way there
is an error
3) Here's the part of the script that fails
BACKUP DATABASE [P01] TO TAPE = N'\\.\Tape1' WITH NOFORMAT,
NOINIT , NOUNLOAD , NAME = N'P01 backup', SKIP , STATS = 10
DECLARE @.i INT
select @.i = position from msdb..backupset where database_name='P01'and
type!='F' and backup_set_id=(select max(backup_set_id) from
msdb..backupset where database_name='P01')
RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM TAPE = N'\\.\Tape1' WITH FILE = @.i, UNLOAD
It is preceeded by three other steps, backing up master, model and
msdb. No problem for them
Step1 (Completes with no problems)
BACKUP DATABASE [master] TO TAPE = N'\\.\Tape1' WITH FORMAT,
NOUNLOAD , NOREWIND, RETAINDAYS = 7, NAME = N'master backup',
SKIP , STATS = 10
Step2 (Completes with no problems)
BACKUP DATABASE [model] TO TAPE = N'\\.\Tape1' WITH NOFORMAT,
NOINIT, NOUNLOAD, NOREWIND, NAME = N'model backup', SKIP , STATS =
10
Step3 (Completes with no problems)
BACKUP DATABASE [msdb] TO TAPE = N'\\.\Tape1' WITH NOFORMAT,
NOINIT, NOUNLOAD, NOREWIND, NAME = N'msdb backup', SKIP , STATS =
10
On Feb 5, 4:35 pm, "dbowman" <dbwmn2...@.yahoo.com> wrote:
> I started to get failed backups with the following error in event
> viewer
> Event 17055
> 18210 : BackupTapeFile::UnloadTape: PrepareTape failure on backup
> device '\\.\Tape0'. Operating system error 1(Incorrect function.).
> The backup runs for a few hours then fails
> I changed 4 tapes (all new), used a different SDLT drive... Same
> result
> Can't find a clue anywhere...
> Any help is greatly appreciated
> Dave