Tape Backups using SBS Backup Wizard

I have a SBS 2003 on a Dell server with a Seagate Travan internal tape
backup drive, which I do not know how to use. I can not find any decent
documentation on the use of the drive.

I have put a new tape cartridge (40 gb compressed, 20 gb native) in the
drive. I have set up a nightly backup of the entire server (about 11 GB of
data) using the SBS Backup wizard found in the To Do list on the server.
After two or three backups, the tape will be full. How do I rewind the tape
after it is full? Do I have to erase it to make it available to do
additional backups? Can I somehow set up the tape to run unattended and
rewind itself and only erase the oldest backup when it does the next backup?
The tapes are quite expensive, so I want to avoid buying more tapes.

Thanks for any help!

Tom

 

Tom, sorry tapes maybe expensive but if server died how much will it cost if
you didn't have a backup ?

How many tapes do you have. All my clients have a minimum of 5 one for the
day of the week. This helps also to take a tape off site incase of theft or
fire ( another point on this, data protection act and data theft... is
everyone encrypting backup data in case tape lost in transit...lol)

See if this helps
http://www.smallbizserver.net/Default.aspx?tabid=144

--
www.smallbizserver.net (2000 and 2003)

microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz2000 (2000 NG)

microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs (2003 NG)

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&safe=off&group=microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz2000

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...off&group=microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs

http://www.sbslinks.com/

http://www.sbsmigration.com

 

There are options in the NTBackup GUI for setting erase tape, etc. You don't
"rewind" a Travan, the drive takes care of such things.

 

Thanks for your help, Bill. You make it easy for me to decide what to do!

Best Regards,

Tom

 

Thanks for your help, James. I will experiment with the tape drive and the
backup GUI to understand the capabilities better. I didn't realize the GUI
had such options.

Best Regards,

Tom