You
will need to clean your tape drive. Use the procedure in this topic
to perform this task.
Clean the LTO-6 tape drive whenever C is displayed on the
single-character display and the status light is flashing amber once
per second or when a system I/O error related to the device occurs.
Do not clean the drive head on a periodic basis. Only clean the drive
head when the drive requests. The LTO-6 tape drive monitors the amount
of time between cleaning operations and displays the C when required.
Attention: Use only the recommended
cleaning cartridge to clean the tape drive. Use of other than the
recommended cleaning cartridges can damage your drive and might void
the warranty.
Note: In
maintenance mode, a flashing C with the solid amber fault LED indicates
that a cartridge must be inserted. This error code does not indicate
that the drive head requires cleaning.
To clean the LTO tape
drive, complete the following steps:
- Make sure that the power is on to the LTO tape drive.
- If a tape cartridge is in the tape drive, eject it and
remove the cartridge.
Note: The IBM cleaning cartridge
is designed to be used for 50 cleanings. After a cleaning cartridge
has been used to its maximum number of uses, the cartridge is considered
expired. When the cleaning cartridge has been used 50 times, discard
the cleaning cartridge. The LTO tape drive detects and automatically
ejects an expired cartridge. Use of the cleaning cartridge for more
than 50 times can cause debris to be deposited on the drive head,
which might result in errors or inferior data quality.
- Grasp the cleaning cartridge by the outer edges, with the
label end out and the write-protect switch to the left.
- Slide the cartridge into the opening on the front of the
LTO tape drive, as indicated by the arrow on the cartridge. Push the
cartridge fully into the drive until the cartridge is engaged and
the activity LED flashes green.
After the cleaning cartridge has been inserted,
the remainder of the cleaning process is automatic. The tape drive
completes the following actions:
- Loads the cleaning cartridge into the tape drive.
- Cleans the drive by using the cleaning tape. Cleaning time might
take from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the number of times
that the cleaning cartridge has been used.
- Unloads the cleaning cartridge when the cleaning operation is
completed.
Note: If the cleaning operation is completed but the C in the
SCD remains on, the cleaning cartridge might not be usable. Repeat
the cleaning procedure with a new cleaning cartridge. If the C in
the SCD still remains on, contact your authorized service provider.
To
determine how many times a cleaning cartridge can be used, check the
information printed on the cartridge. If you attempt to use a depleted
cleaning cartridge, the fault indicator is turned on and the SCD displays
6 or 7 to indicate that the cleaning process was not done and that
the cleaning cartridge is no longer usable. If the fault indicator
was lit and a C was shown in the SCD prior to the cleaning process,
the indicators stay on after the depleted cleaning cartridge is removed.
If these indicators were off prior to inserting the depleted cleaning
cartridge, they will turn off after the depleted cleaning cartridge
is removed from the drive.
If a system error
occurs, clean the drive and retry the operation. If the operation
fails, replace the data cartridge, clean the drive again, and then
retry the operation.
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