Drive Error / Use Cleaning Tape

[Frank Kleikamp]

Hello all together!
I got a problem with an internal HP OEM LTO drive. Drive Error and Use Cleaning Tape LEDs are blinking, cleaning tape is inserted and I can´t get it out. Is there a way to get the tape out mechanically (like when you open a CD-ROM-drive)? Or have I to open (and probably destroy) the drive. There´s no warranty for tape anymore. Anyone able to help?

Thanx in advance,
Frank

[Richard Bickers · Accepted solution]

Hi Frank.

There is a manual tape extraction procedure for these drives though we keep it internal to HP as it requires taking the lid off which voids warranty.

With the lid off you can rotate a wheel and remove the tape. It's not too hard - though can take a while. Details are in the procedure.

Please let me know if you would like us to send you the procedure.

Richard.

[Frank Kleikamp]

Hi Richard,

would be very nice if you could send the procedure!

Thanx,
Frank

[Richard Bickers]

Sure. I've attached a short document which should get you going. For anyone else looking at this please note that removing drive covers and/or labels will void warranty!

This is for the Ultrium 230 but all the HP LTO drives are very similar.

Good luck!

[Frank Kleikamp]

Hi Richard,

thanks a lot for your help. I got the tape out and the drive works nearly perfect now (use cleaning tape is blinking and when I put a cleaning tape in I get the Tape Error LED blinking, so I´ll ignore it).

I attached a new document for the LTO-drive.

Best regards,
Frank

[Marino Meloni_1]

Remenber that if the cleaning tape is expired it will not clean and the led "Cleaning request" stay on.
Cleaning tape for ultrium have 15 cleaning cycles only

[Richard Bickers]

Thanks, Marino. Good point.

There are actually two HP cleaning tapes. The early black ones only lasted around 15 cleans but the later orange ones should be good for anything up to 50 (we say 20-50) in the specs.

You can tell if the drive is actually cleaning because it takes around a minute and you can hear it using the internal brush. If the tape has expired it should be ejected quite quickly.

Frank, thanks for the extra picture. Always useful. Just out of interest, do you think we should post the process on the external web - as long as we make the warranty concerns clear?

Glad to hear your drive is working again. They've proved to be very reliable from our field experience. Didn't like to hear of a dead one - even out of warranty...

Richard