How the h%& do you format a tape drive?

[typhoon43]

I have an HP Surestore DAT24x6 that we are reinstalling on a new backup server. It had backups previously stored on the tapes in teh drive (Veritas Backup Exec 9.1)

Windows sees the drive in the dvice manager, but that's anout it. Where can I find native support to format the tapes, or do I need to find some HP software that will do it?

Thanks gang..pulling my hair out over here.

 

[djnes]

It doesn't have to be HP software....it can be anything that supports tha tape drive, like Veritas, etc. All those utlities have something that will erase and format the tapes. Windows has built in support for mose tape drives in the "Backup" utility, but only some basic functions.