Dell PowerVault 100T DDS4 Media Handbook - Page 11

3.3 Cleaning Cycles Regularly cleaning DDS/DAT drives helps in long-term reliability and should be conducted on a scheduled cycle as well as when requested by the drive. The recommended cleaning interval for the drive is 50 tape motion hours which is indicated when the cleaning LED comes on solid. Dell does not recommend cleaning outside of the normal cleaning requests from the tape drive unless you are performing Read/Write troubleshooting steps. Note: If the Cleaning LED remains on after using a valid cleaning tape, this would indicate the use of an expired cleaning tape. See table 3 and table 5 for additional characteristics. 3.4 Cleaning media usage and drive cleaning lights Figure 12 - Universal Cleaning Tapes Physical Description Part Number Characteristics Black tape labeled with "DG-12CL or DG-15CL are the current recommended clean cartridge to use." 310-5053 Appearance almost identical to DDS/DAT Data cartridge. Only difference is the labeling and cleaning cartridge has no write protect tab. NOTE: Do not use any cleaning cartridge that has cloth like material. Material for valid drive should resemble magnetic tape. Life Expectancy 40 cleanings Table 4 -Cleaning Characteristics per Drive * If excessive dust or debris from the tape media collects at one or more of the tape heads, your drive may not be able to read from or write to tape. To avoid this situation, it is recommended that you maintain the above clean schedule on your DDS/DAT tape drive. Dell DDS/DAT Media Handbook Page 11