Error conditions, such as media errors or those due to a faulty drive or SCSI bus, may leave one or more tapes in an "Error" state.  The system does this to protect data by ensuring that it will not attempt to write to tapes that have problems associated with them.  Files can be read from the tape but further files cannot be written unless the Error state is reset.

When such an error occurs, the system also puts a message in the Windows Event Log. Where the XenData Alert Module is installed, the system may be configured to also provide e-mail alerts and on-screen notifications.

After consideration of the error message in the Event Log, the system administrator may decide that it is appropriate to ignore the error and continue to use the affected tape(s). This is performed using the Reset Error function available within the XenData Management Console. Alternatively, the Add Volume function available in the XenData Management Console may be used to continue writing to new tapes. Sometimes, the error condition on the tape cannot be corrected using the Reset Error function and, in these cases, a Volume must be added to allow more data to be written to this Volume Set.