let me add a little more here....

 I can see the catalogs when I click on restore, then view by media. Most of them have a little question mark on them though and I cant see any of the data. It shows me the date, what server it is and the size.....but it just wont let me see anything.

gentle nudge....

Are U trying to Catalog tapes? how? why?

I don't understand U,  usually catalog is updated by the netbackup evironment as the backup keeps running,

Yeah, trying to catalog tapes. Upstairs wants to see how far back we can go. This is a pain....but if you know of a better way to find the monthly backups from 3 years ago, I'm all ears. The tapes aren't labeled by the way, just numbered.

ohh, also....the backups from years past were performed on a different server.......so I have to catalog a tape, restore the catalog folder from that tape, and copy it into the exisisting catalog folder.....make sense?? haha