I am new to unix, and have just taken over maintenance/admin of a unix system. I am trying to restore a full backup of one of the consoles on the system. The tape backup device appears to be recognized as it is an option to restore from. After choosing the tape backup and loading the tape, a message appears "obtaining recovery tools", followed by the following message, "cannot load scsi(0)tape(4)(sashARCS)--media not loaded". If anyone has a suggestion as to what this means I would appreciare it. Also not sure if there is such a thing as a bootup or startup disk required if so how do I go about creating one as there was none passed on to me.

What is the OS and version? What type of backup software is being used (and version)?

Insure your tape is write-protected since you are new to this - so it does not get destroyed by mistake.

Check out the mt command - it may help with verifing that the drive is working and really seen from the system.

The O/S is SGI's IRIX ver 6.2. The backup/restore is what brand that comes with the O/S, I can't find any other info about it.

Go to the following and get a free account - then use the different tools for info on the OS. You should be able to find all the info you need. FYI - usually media not loaded means the tape wasn't in the tape drive. If you have more than one tape drive on the system OR there was more than one tape drive and one was removed, you may be using the wrong device as far as the system is concerned. Check that you are really on tape(4) as shown in your error.

http://support.sgi.com/irix/