Ultrium External 215 LT01 drive - cleaning light has never come on

[KimNNH]

Hi, We use an HP windows 2003 server, Backup Exec 12.5 and an Ultrium External 215 LT01 drive. The server, software and drive have been in use for 2+ years and the cleaning light has never come on. The backup runs 5 nights a week and takes approx 6 hours.  We've had very few errors - one a couple of nights ago, so I ran a cleaning tape through one cycle and the next backup was successful.

Is there any way to test the light?  I'm wondering if there is even a bulb in it!

thank you!

[JoaoMatos]

Hi,

When you reboot the server, on post, all server lights are tested. Verify it cleaning light come on

I am not sure, if with HP TapeTools, you can or not test Media Tape Lights.

Regards,

JoaoMatos

[Hywel_Mallett]

I've had a similar setup, and I've never seen the cleaning light either.

HP LT&T doesn't test the cleaning light.

[KimNNH]

Hywel,  how did you set up your cleaning schedule - just a reminder in Outlook or something in Backup Exec?  thanks 

[pkh]

You can schedule a cleaning job just like any other job, right-click on the drive and select clean.  When the dialog pops up, go to the schedule section to schedule it.  Since your drive is probably a stand-alone drive, scheduling a job would not be much use because you need to put in the cleaning tape before running the job.  I would just use an Outlook reminder.

[KimNNH]

So much for relying on those lights.....  I'll set a reminder.

Thank you all! 

[Hywel_Mallett]

Back in those days, I didn't have a cleaning schedule!

I've found that some drives will cope just fine with long periods of no cleaning, while some (claim to) need cleaning all the time.