Expiry Date of Cleaning Media

[orchidedu]

Refer to the below link

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=63890&prodTypeId=12169&objectID=lpg51100

Extract from the above Link:
If the cartridge being inserted is a cleaning cartridge, make sure that the cartridge has not expired. A DAT cleaning cartridge is good for 50 cleans but the drive will eject an expired cleaning cartridge almost immediately.


My question: I have some unused Media which we bought 3 or 4 years back. How do I know the Media is expired?

[thomasr]

To the best of my knowledge, regular tape media does not "expire" or have some fixed date when it will stop being writable.

However, cleaning cartridges do have a fixed number of cleaning cycles that they are good for. And that is what the paragraph above is talking about. In this case, "expired" could have been written "used up" and perhaps been more clear.

Also note that tape media does need to be kept properly to ensure it is readable and writable for the longest possible period (which is measured in decades under best conditions). These include storing the tapes in the right orientation, keeping proper humidity and temperature, and ensuring there are no unusual swings in temperature or humidity, keeping the tapes away from magnetic fields, etc.