JSI Tip 3470. Windows 2000 NTBackup issues 'Access Denied to Tape Media'?

When you start NTBackup, you receive:

Access Denied to Tape Media The current user account does not have rights to access the media managed by Removable Storage.As a result, no tape devices are available to this account.If desired, an administrator can grant access to this account by running Backup to create media pools for this application,then granting this account rights to access each pool.[ ] Do Not show this message again. OK

Even an administrator receives this message?

NOTE: You are unable to successfully Prepare media.

This problem is generally the result of corruption in the RSM database.

The RSM database is located in the %SystemRoot%System32Ntmsdata folder. When NTBackup backs up the %SystemRoot% folder, NTBackup automatically backs up the RSM database to two locations:

- The backup media.
- The %SystemRoot%System32NtmsdataExport folder.

Since the RSM database is corrupt, you can NOT use NTBackup to restore the %SystemRoot%System32Ntmsdata folder.

To resolved the problem, use either of the following methods:

If the %SystemRoot%System32NtmsdataExport does NOT exist, force RSM to create a new database:

1. Computer Management / Services and Applications / Services / Removeable Storage / Stop.

2. Rename any files in the %SystemRoot%System32Ntmsdata folder to .old.

3. Restart the Removeable Storage service.

This should create a new RSM database. If it doesn't, restart your computer.

If a non-corrupt %SystemRoot%System32NtmsdataExport folder exists:

1. Use Regedt32 to navigate to:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlNTMS

2. Edit or Add Value name ImportDatabase, as a REG_DWORD data type. Set the data value to 1.

3. Stop and restart the Removeable Storage service.

This causes RSM to restore the database from the files in the %SystemRoot%System32NtmsdataExport folder.

NOTE: Make sure that the ImportDatabase data value is automatically reset after the import.