Table of Contents
Advertisement
Theory of operations
Note.
Proper maintenance of the drive requires that you use the DDS head-
cleaning cartridge after every 25 hours of read/write operation and whenever
the rectangular, green cartridge-in-place LED flashes during operation.
You can order both DDS data and head-cleaning cartridges from Seagate. They are
packaged in multiples of five.
These small (approximately 2 inches × 3 inches × 0.4 inch) cartridges house
magnetic tape that is 3.81 mm (0.150 inch) wide. The DDS cartridges are slightly
bigger than a credit card. Figure 22 shows key features of the DDS cartridge.
File Protect Hole
(Restorable)
(4)
Datum Holes
(3)
(2)
(1)
Slider Lock (2)
Lid Lock
(Locked by Slider)
Figure 22. DDS-4 cartridge design features
Qualified DDS cartridges are designed with specific write-protect, lid and other
features for information interchange and are tested to comply with the ANSI DDS
specifications.
The Scorpion 40 drive also recognizes all MRS cartridges when MRS is enabled.
MRS cartridges have a series of alternate opaque and clear stripes at the beginning
of the tape. These stripes classify the media as data grade, rather than audio-grade
media. Figure 23 shows the four recognition holes that allow the drive sensors to
identify the type of tape, its magnetic thickness and whether the tape is prerecorded,
unrecorded or is a cleaning cartridge. Other cartridge features allow the drive to
determine the cartridge in, BOT and EOT points.
The cartridge also provides for write protection so that existing data on the cartridge
is not overwritten (See Figure 25). A write-protected cartridge allows the existing
data to be read but does not allow new data to be written to the tape.
Note.
A write-protected cartridge
prevents the error log (in the
system area) from being
updated.
Figure 23. Write-Protect Tab on the
DDS Cartridge
Recognition
Holes (1, 2, 3, 4)
Slider Lock (1)
Write
Enabled
41
Write
Protected
Hide quick links:
Advertisement
Table of Contents
