hmm. physical drive was replaced and then we installed the drivers using BE Device Wizard, rebooted and new drive appeared in BE as 'HP2' underneath 'HP1' in the Devices window. Properties of 'HP2' did not populate in Drive Type or Media Type on General tab, and Media Types tab was also empty. We deleted 'HP1' but this made no difference (although we didnt reboot at that point). then abandoned the task and put the old drive back in to run the overnight jobs. the old drive cam eup as 'HP3' and works fine. so we now have 'HP2' as the new drive (ut not installed) and 'HP3' as the old drive which is in and working. my gut feeling would be to delete both drives in BE, then shut down the server and replace the tape drive, boot up and create a new drive so there is only one..? sound feasible?