In most cases, Backup Exec (tm) reports bad media or unrecognizable media when the tapes have come from the manufacturer with the header unformatted or in an incompatible format. The "nopoll" parameter disables the standard scan of the media when initiating the NT Backup Utility.

Note: Do not use the /nopoll parameter with any other parameters.

To erase the tape to make it recognizable to Backup Exec, perform the following:

1. Close Backup Exec
2. In Control Panel | Services, stop all the Backup Exec services
3. From a command prompt, type ntbackup.exe /nopoll (Figure 1)

Figure 1
 

4. Select Operations | Erase Tape from the menu
5. When the erase operation is complete, exit the Windows NT Backup applet
6. In Control Panel | Services, start all the Backup Exec services

The media is now available for use by Backup Exec.

Note: Refer to the Related Documents section below for further information on how to prepare media in a Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system.