>I have an old tape that was used for a database backup once, that I want
>to make a scratch tape of, but it wont work. ...

As the ANR8443E msg description stipulates, you can't simply change the status
of a volume, when it contains TSM data: you have to do something about that
data.

DbBackup volumes (old, irrelevant ones) are disposed of with Delete Volhistory.
With that, the Admin Ref stipulates: "The latest database full and incremental
backup series will not be deleted."  You should be doing regular dbbackups,
where the presence of the most recent one should not be an issue.

   Richard Sims