Tape Drive Maintenance

[CA899473]

I have a Colorado 20gb external tape drive. I have been reading about "cleaning" the tape drive. Do I need to purchase a cleaning tape from somewhere and run that periodically? Any other maintenance I should be doing?
Thanks

[Tim Martin_3 · Accepted solution]

Mark-
HP does not recommend using any type of cleaning cartridge for their Colorado tape drives.

Instead, they recommend "cleaning" it by retensioning a tape several times. (Accessed via the Tools menu.)

Also, there is an end-of-tape sensor that looks like a small window. This can be cleaned with a dry swab. If the end-of-tape is not sensed, the tape can become despooled.

Tim

[CA899473]

I thought whenever I backed up something, the tape was automatically retensioned anyway? Is this insufficient for "cleaning"? Also, I am not sure where to find this endoftape sensor that you describe. I flipped up the tape door and didn't see anything that resembled a window. Thanks

[Tim Martin_3]

Mark-
Feel free to use canned air or a swab to remove any other dust you see in the unit.

The end-of-tape window is about 1/8 inch wide and almost square. When you are looking into the unit, it is to the left of the spindle.

No the tape is not automatically retensioned. Do this from the tools menu, several times. The software will run the tape from end to end.

HP does not recommend the dry travan tape cleaning cartridges for their Colorado drives. Even though other manufacturers, such as Seagate, do.

Tim

[Lewis Finch]

You are correct about retension. If you are using CBII, under Tools/preferences you can choose to have the drive retension before every backup. This is recommended.