PC Hardware in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Care and Feeding of a Tape Drive

Tape drives and tape cartridges are surprisingly durable, but getting the best results requires following a few simple rules:

Clean the drive regularly!

The most frequent cause of tape drive problems is dirty read/write heads. Tape drive manufacturers typically recommend cleaning the drive monthly or after every 10 to 25 hours of use. It is also a good idea to clean the drive immediately after first using a new tape. Depending on how you use your drive and how clean your environment is, even that may be inadequate. Problems caused by dirty heads are not always immediately obvious, because tape drives use industrial-strength ECC methods that allow them to recover from most read and write errors. The first sign of dirty heads may simply be that backups begin taking longer than they should. If your environment is typical, it’s probably not excessive to clean the tape drive weekly or before each full backup. Some drives can be cleaned only by using the recommended cleaning cartridge. Other drives allow you to vacuum or blow out the dust and then use a foam swab moistened with rubbing alcohol to clean the heads and rollers (cotton swabs can leave debris on the heads, and should be avoided). Having once watched a cleaning cartridge destroy the heads on a tape drive, we prefer the second method if the drive manufacturer lists it as permissible.

Tip

Some high-end tape drives keep track of how much the drive has been used since the last cleaning. For example, ...