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Operation and maintenance
Drive maintenance
Cleaning the tape drive
The Ultrium drive requires little or no maintenance. However, on rare occasions, the
drive mechanism may need to be cleaned.
Excessive tape debris or other material may accumulate on the tape heads if the
drive is used with nonapproved media or operated in a hot, dusty environment. In
this case, the drive may experience excessive errors while reading or writing, and
the amber Status LED will remain on continuously during operation. This means that
the drive heads need to be cleaned.
The LTO cleaning cartridge has the same dimensions as the data cartridge and
contains an LTO-CM (Cartridge Memory), but is loaded with cleaning media instead
of recording media. Always keep the cleaning cartridge in its protective case when
not in use.
To clean the drive, insert a Seagate-approved cleaning cartridge. During the cleaning
process, both the Status and Drive LEDs will remain lit. After the cleaning process is
completed, the cartridge may be ejected automatically, or you may need to press the
Eject button to remove the cartridge. Each time you use the cleaning cartridge, write
the date on the label for future reference.
Note:
If the Status LED comes on continuously within 24 hours after a cleaning
cycle, run the cleaning cycle again. If, after three cleaning cycles in a 72-
hour period, the Status LED lights up again, contact Seagate technical
support.
Each time the drive is cleaned, the tape advances to a new, unused section of
media. After approximately 50 cleanings, all of the media will be used up and you
must purchase a new cleaning cartridge. When a cleaning cartridge is used up, the
amber Status LED flashes while the green Drive LED remains on. Do not attempt to
reuse a spent cleaning cartridge
Note:
The cleaning procedure will not run and the cleaning cartridge will be ejected
in the following circumstances:
•
The drive does not recognize the cartridge as an LTO cleaning cartridge.
•
The cleaning cartridge has been used too recently. (The drive tries to
prevent excessive cleaning, which can cause wear on the heads.)
•
All of the tape on the cleaning cartridge has been used up. (In this case,
the Status LED will flash rapidly while the Drive LED remains on.)
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