I received my distribution of BackupEDGE for IBM RISC on 4mm tape, when I attempted to install I received errors from the tape drive stating "An error occurred while reading from the media".

BackupEDGE distribution tapes are created in variable block mode, some AIX systems are set to fixed block mode.

	  At the # prompt type the following:

	  tctl -f /dev/tape status (press enter)

	  (NOTE: tape is your tape device, usually rmt0).
	  Write down the block size number, to return your drive to this value.
	  This number is usually 0, 512 or 1024.  We will use 512 for our 
	  example.
	  To set your tape device to a variable block size type:

	  chdev -l 'rmt0' -a block_size='0'(press enter)

	  
	  When complete, you should see 'rmt0 changed'.  Then install your
	  BackupEDGE product per the installation instructions.  Upon a 
	  completed installation, return your device back to the block size you
	  wrote down earlier.  This is accomplished by the following:

	  chdev -l 'rmt0' -a block_size='512' (press enter)