Tape or Tape Drive is Dirty
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## Tape or Tape Drive is Dirty

This message indicates that your tape or tape drive is dirty. If the tape drive is dirty, it must be cleaned to prevent read or write errors.

| Warning: Do not use this procedure to clean 8mm or DAT drives. Use an approved cleaning cartridge for these drives.

The following are the recommended guidelines for when to clean your tape drive.

- After an initial pass with a new tape cartridge.

- If using all new tape cartridges, after every two hours of use.

- After every 8 hours of normal use. For DAT and 8mm tape drives, every 30 hours. The green LED on the DAT drive will start a slow (about every 10 seconds) regular blink when it is time for a cleaning.

Following are nine-steps to cleaning the tape heads:

1. Obtain the following materials:

   - Isopropyl alcohol (95%), a good quality head cleaning solution, or a Freon RTFS-type head cleaning solution.

   - Cleaning swabs, 6-inch or longer, made of lintless cotton or equivalent lintless, non-abrasive material.

   - An adjustable light or flashlight may be necessary to see in the tape cavity of the drive while cleaning.

2. Power down the system. You may consider removing the drive, if appropriate, to perform the cleaning as it is easier to access the tape drive heads.

3. Move the slide lever on the front panel so that the heads are extended into the cartridge area.

4. Dip a swab into the cleaning solution. The swab must be saturated, but not dripping. When cleaning, the swab should always be move across the heads in a direction perpendicular to the direction the tape moves across the heads. Movement of the swab across the heads in any other direction may allow residue to remain in minute crevices on the head surface, possibly causing subsequent interference of data transfer. Note: The cleaning liquid should be kept away from all of the rubber pinch rollers. Attempting to clean material buildup on the rollers causes them to become brittle. The cleaning solution should also be kept away from the drive belts.

5. Discard the used swab and repeat steps 4 and 5 with a clean swab until the swab comes away from the head with no visible sign of dirt or residue.

6. With a clean, dry swab, remove any residue of cleaning fluid using the up and down wiping motion described in Step 4. Note: All residue must be completely removed from head surfaces and the heads and adjacent surfaces must be dry and clean before loading a tape in the drive.

7. Move the slide lever to reposition the head assemblies in their resting position.

8. Re-insert the drive, if it has been removed, and power on the system.

9. You may now test the drive as follows:

   - From the Toolchest, select “System” then “Run Confidence Tests” and click on the tape drive icon to start the tape drive test.

Tape cleaning kits (if needed) may be purchased from your service provider.

If the problem persists, contact your System Administrator or your service provider.

For information on how to configure or disable System Alerts, click here.

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