BUG: Loading Database Dumps Spanning Tapes Fails (158328)

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to load a dump that spans tapes, the load may fail, and you may receive the following errors:

Msg 4032, Level 16, State 2
Cannot find file 10 on tape 'SS0001'.

Msg 3203, Level 16, State 2
Read on dump device '\\.\TAPE0' failed, vsn=0 return=-2 status=-2.
Please consult the SQL Server error log for more details.

Msg 3103, Level 16, State 1
Unexpected end-of-dump while loading database, attempting to continue.
Please verify database integrity.

This problem occurs if both of the following are true:

One of the tapes that the dump continued or spanned onto already contains a SQL Server dump.
The NOINIT option (the default option) was used on the dump that created the tapes.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do one of the following:

Always make sure that the tapes you are using are blank.
Use the INIT option on the DUMP DATABASE command, so that the spanned tapes are overwritten.
Use tapes that supply more backup capacity than you require, so that spanning is not necessary.
Use stripe dumps to multiple tape devices, so that spanning is not necessary.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.