Cleaning The Tape Heads; Cleaning Frequency; Cleaning Cartridges - HP J3278B - SureStore CD-ROM Server/Tower 7 NAS Server Administrator's Manual

Tape Heads, Cleaning
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Cleaning the Tape Heads

Cleaning the drive's tape heads regularly with a cleaning cartridge is important to
maintain the integrity of your backup data. For optimum performance and to prevent
the loss of data, HP recommends that you incorporate a cleaning cycle into your
backup routine.
This topic describes how to:

Cleaning frequency

Cleaning cartridges

How to clean tape heads on a tape drive
How to clean tape heads on an autoloader
Cleaning Frequency
As a general guideline, you should clean the tape heads after every fifth backup
cartridge. You should also clean the tape heads if the media caution signal (flashing
amber light) is displayed on a tape drive or the 'Clean Me' message is displayed on an
autoloader.
HP SureStore Tape DAT40, DAT40x6 models all have an internal head cleaner and
feature many improvements to keep the tape path and heads as clean as possible.
Cleaning Cartridges
Use only an HP cleaning cartridge (part number C5709A) to clean the tape heads. Do
not use swabs or other means of cleaning the heads. The cleaning cartridge uses a
special tape to clean the tape heads. A cleaning cartridge can only be used 50 times
or as instructed on the cartridge packaging. When the cartridge runs out of tape,
discard it and use a new one.