>I actually check the ARCServe log, since it'll tell me if a file got skipped because someone held it open exclusively when the backup was supposed to run; the same kind of log is available to Seagate Backup. It's equally important to make sure it ran to completion; I had someone put in an old 60m DAT tape which wouldn't hold even close to enough data for the backup to complete.

My backup is set to stop if it can't backup a file on full backup. It's part of the plan to enforce user logoff when they depart for the day. If my backup can't complete, the felonious user will get a lecture. Mine also kicks out if it runs out of space, but I'm also at DDS3 12/24 now, so space (for now) is good, though I can't fit two fulls on one tape. Hence the autoloader...and I will go to fulls daily too at that point...

>ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY! There is nopthing so disheartening as discovering that going to the trouble of making backups was completely a waste of time because the tapes can't be restored! We do a backup and restore test at least monthly.

Yes, I learned that once the hard way, myself...