Status lights

The status lights provide information about the status of the tape drive.

The status lights (in Front panels of the drives) are light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that provide information about the state of the drive.

The Ready status light is green and the Fault status light is amber, and (when lit) solid or flashing. The Encryption status light is white.

Table 1 lists the conditions of the status lights and Single-character Display (SCD) and provides an explanation of what each condition means.

Table 1. Meaning of status lights and single-character display (SCD)

If the green Ready Status Light is...	And the amber Fault Status Light is...	And the Encryption Status Light is...	And the SCD is...	And the SCD dot is...	Meaning
Off	Off	Off	Off	Off	The drive has no power or is powered off.
On	Off	On/Off	Off	Off	The drive is powered on and in an idle state. Note: If a cartridge is loaded, the white Encryption status light is on when all the data on the cartridge is encrypted (excluding the label). LTO Ultrium 7 and later cartridges only.
Flashing (once per second)	Off	On/Off	Off	Off	The drive is reading from the tape, writing to the tape, rewinding the tape, locating data on the tape, loading the tape, or unloading the tape. Note: The white Encryption status light is on when all the data on the cartridge is encrypted (excluding the label). LTO Ultrium 7 and later cartridges only.
Flashing (once per second)	Off	Off	Off	Off	If the drive contains a cartridge during the power-on cycle, the drive completes POST and slowly rewinds the tape. The process might take up to 13 minutes. The light stops flashing and becomes solid when the drive completes the recovery and is ready for a read or write operation. To eject the cartridge, press Unload.
Off	On	Off	Displaying an error code or Maintenance Mode Function	On/Off	The drive is displaying error codes from the error code log on the SCD. For more information, see Function code 9: Display error code log and Error codes and messages.
On/Off	On/Off	On/Off	Displaying random segments/ Blank/displaying random segments/ displaying /Blank	On/Off	During power-on, or a drive reset, the drive front panel displays drive progress as follows: SCD displays random segments (no Lights ON). SCD displays random segments (Ready light ON). SCD displays random segments (Fault light ON). SCD displays [8] (Ready, Fault, Encryption, and SCD dot lights ON). SCD goes blank (Ready light ON) after a successful power-on or reset. If an error is detected during the power-on or reset, the tape drive posts an error code to the SCD. To determine the error, locate the code in Error codes and messages.
Off	On	Off		On/Off	The drive is entering or exiting from Maintenance mode. For more information, see Function code 0: Maintenance mode.
Off	On	Off	Flashing selected function	On/Off	The drive is running the selected function while in Maintenance mode.
Off	Flashing (once per second)	Off	Displaying error code	Off	An error occurred and the drive or media might require service, or it might require cleaning. Make a note of the code on the SCD, then see Error codes and messages to determine the action that is required.
Off	Flashing	Off	Displaying	Off	The drive needs cleaning.
Off	Flashing	Off	Displaying Function Code or Flashing	Off	The drive is updating firmware.1 With an FMR cartridge the SCD displays a . The SCD is off with the host interface. For more information, see Updating firmware.
Off	Flashing (twice per second)	Off	Off	Off	The drive detected an error and is completing a firmware recovery. It resets automatically.
Off	On	Off	Flashing	Off	The drive is requesting a cartridge to be loaded.
Off	Flashing (twice per second)	Off	Off	On	There is a drive memory dump in flash memory.
1 Power must not be removed from the drive until the microcode update is complete. The drive indicates that the update is complete by resetting and completing POST.