It must be placed in a media set which has overwrite protection period. Please go to the media tab in Backup Exec and check the media set under which the tape is present currently. Move it to scratch media if you would like the tape to be available for overwrite. You can use following document to understand ADAMM in detail:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265

Please mark it a solution, if this is useful.
Thanks

if you cannot even Quick Erase the tape, it probably has nothing to do with the media sets

Have you run a pass or two of the manufacturer's diagnostics against the drive?

Thanks Ken and Hemant,

Running a diagnostic of the manufacuter of the drive is a good idea.
I will try that right away.

The diagnostic came up with some issues. One of them was updating the firmware which I did.
Lets see and wait.

Updating the firmware didn't do much.
Last friday I used a tape from nov 2007 which was mounted 21 times since then. And again the tape was seen as write protected.
Could the problem be that they are too old? Because when I use a brand new one backup will go smoothly.
What is the expiration date of Ultrium LTO2 tapes anyway?

Any one an idea?

Well, it is simply to do with ovewrite protection period imposed by media set properties. I dont think it has anything to do with firmware. Check the properties of the media set to which the job is directed. It is making it overwrite protected. Move the media to scratch media and you should have it overwritable.

Thanks

Thanks for the input, gentlemen.

We use the following media set: Daily

The properties are:
Overwrite protection period: None
Append period:None   Infinite - Allow Append

That's it. Very basic really.
So it should be overwritable.

Quit a challenge I think.

Thanks.

Overwrite protection period: None
Append period:None   Infinite - Allow Append

With this setup, the tape will not expire until xx days after the last  Append.  That is, if you Overwrite the tape on Monday, then APPEND Tues, Weds, Thurs and Fri, with a 7 day OPP, you will not be able to overwrite the tape until the FOLLOWING Saturday

Hi, Did you ever reach a resolution on this?
 - I am having what sounds like the exact same issue. I have posted a forum post here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/bac...

If you have any feedback please update this thread (or my one)!

Thanks!

 No, I never reached a resolution on this.
After I have read your forum posts my feelings are exactly the same about that it might be somekind of hardware problem.
So if you have some kind of answer about this problem please let me know.

Thanks.

Hello all,

thanks for your replies.

We did exactly what CLakey did withou changing the cables, just the drive.
The defect was very much likely to be the drive it self. There is a little pin in the drive which detects if the tape is write protected or not.
That was not working right.
 
So, problem solved.