HP Colorado 20GB Tape Drive - Cleaning cartridge

[Robin Botta]

Is there a cleaning cartrdige available for the HP Colorado 20GB Tape Drive (C4435A)?

Thanks

[madoc]

nope.

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=lpg12020

[Bob_196]

Actually you don't want to completely follow that document - you should never use alcohol to clean the drive - it could ruin the read write heads.
Looking inside the drive - near the left hand side there is a small recessed rectangular sensor (the same shape and size of the led light on the front of the drive) - This is the tape sensor and you will want to use compressed air to blow out any dust in that recessed area - be careful not to aim the air at any other components as it could damage the read/write heads. The other method of cleaning is to run retention on the tape - this will help clean up the read/write heads