Fix for Ready; no idle devices are available error in Symantec backup Exec

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If you are using Symantec backup Exec 9,10,11d in Windows 2000,2003 servers some times you might see the following error when you try to run the job

Ready; no idle devices are available

If the device is showing up in USE and there is no ACTIVE job then its not a normal scenario.Ensure that the device is visible/detected in the windows device manager.if its not scan for hardware changes and ensure that it appears there.If not contact your hardware vendor or check the connectivity/interface.

If the device is detected in the device manager,DISABLE and then DELETE the device in backup Exec and then RESTART the backup Exec services:It should come up fine.

Also ensure that you do not have the DRIVE connected to a raid controller scsi card and that u do not have EVENT ID 9,11,15(ERRORS) in the system logs in the windows event viewer.

You can also try to power off and power it on back the backup drive

if you do then refer to the following articles to troubleshoot more indepth

How to troubleshoot error messages about Event ID 9 and Event ID 11 check here

Jobs appear as ”Ready; no idle devices are available” in the Job Monitor even though drives are available.You can also check this veritas article

Inventory, Lock, Unlock, Label, & Erase jobs do not run against a Robotic Library and “Ready; No Idle Devices are available” shows in the Job Monitor if a backup job is queued and prompting for a user to insert more media check here