Cleaning tape

[firozfirst]

Hi Team,

i am new in Symantec backup i am unable to understand why we used cleaning tape and how is it work. Please help me to get it understand. unable to fine correct answer with googel.

[pkh]

Cleaning tape as the name suggests is to clean the tape drive recording head which when clogged up with dirt will impair is ability to read/write

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

You use it in 1 of 2 ways:

1. leave the tape in an autoloader/library's slot and let BE decide when the drive needs to be cleaned (if this is a stand-alone drive you need to do so manually yourself);

2. Keep the tape on hand, and when you start getting notified of this in BE, or the drive/autoloader/library's cleaning light comes on, put the cleaning tape in and let it run.

Personally I prefered #2 as it kept a slot for a tape for backups, but it is your choice. Cleaning tapes have a limited lifespan of around 30 uses, and after that you throw it away. They're designated with CLN in the barcode, and cannot be used for backups by the system.

Thanks!

[Colin_Weaver]

To add to CraigV if you only have a stand alone tape device and not a library then the way a cleaning tape works is you insert it in the stand alone drive, the drive knows it is a cleaning tape and spends a short time using it (maybe a minute) and then automatically ejects the cleaning tape - this cycle is a single clean and if you don't realize and insert the tape again it will clean it again. As every cleaning tape should only be used a certain number of times before being replaced (see documentation that comes with the tape for specifics) then not realizing this can in effect use your cleaning tape too quickly.