When restoring a backup file using LiteSpeed and an error appears containing "not a valid Microsoft Tape Format", indicating that the backup file is corrupt or may not have been created by LiteSpeed (created by native SQL Server Backup process).
How to determine if the file was created by LiteSpeed or by the native SQL Server?
File may have been corrupted during creation, move, by thrid-party virus scan application or may be a Native SQL Server file, not be a LiteSpeed format file.
1. If the backup file was copied while the Virus Scan was running, turn Virus Scan off and recopy the original backup file to local drive and restart the LiteSpeed Restore operation.
2. To determine the application that created the backup files (Native SQL Server vs. LiteSpeed). Run the following from Query Analyzer. The LiteSpeed file will have the 'Compressed' column output = 1, the native will =0
/*Native*/RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK = N'd:\Backup\Northwind200612040741Native_Full.BKP'
/*LiteSpeed*/exec master.dbo.xp_restore_headeronly @filename ='d:\Backup\Northwind200612110950LiteSpeed_Full.BKP'
3. These queries indicate that the backup set is valid:
/*LiteSpeed*/exec master.dbo.xp_restore_verifyonly @filename ='d:\Backup\Northwind200612110950LiteSpeed_Full.BKP'
/*Native*/RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM DISK = N'd:\Backup\Northwind200612040741Native_Full.BKP'
Files that are suspect may return an output similar to:
Server: Msg 49999, Level 19, State 1, Line 0
Not a valid LiteSpeed 2005 format file (Type is: 1).
You must select a valid LiteSpeed 2005 file to append backups or use the @init option to delete the file.
or the Native SQL Server files may return:
Server: Msg 3242, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The file on device 'D:\Backups\Norwind_Native.BAK' is not a valid Microsoft Tape Format backup set.
Server: Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally.
