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cleaning tape

Aerosmith1
Level 4
    Hi we are using Exabyte 8 MM CLN tapes and the Backup Exec showing errors the
Cleaning tape expired. Can some one reply me , what one has to do once the new Cleaning tape is put in media slot ?

is there a procedure involved once the CLN tape is replaced in slot or just inserting new tape would help ?

Please reply to following questions too,

what is the purpose of a CLN tape ?
what if one keeps running the backup jobs for expired CLN tape ?

Thanks and good day


2 REPLIES 2

simon1976
Level 3

what is the purpose of a CLN tape ?


Removes muck from the tape drive's heads.

what if one keeps running the backup jobs for expired CLN tape ?

You risk your backup jobs not copying data correctly to the tapes and/or not being able to read correctly from the tapes.

A cleaning tape can only be used a certain number of times, eg 15.  Once the tape has been used 15 times, then it should be replaced, otherwise you risk putting more muck onto the tape drive's heads than you are taking off them.

I'm assuming you are using an auto-tape loader in which case, goto to the Devices tab and expand the list until you see your tape drive.  Right click on the drive and from the menu that appears choose Clean.

Hopefully that's answered your questions, if not let me know.

Aerosmith1
Level 4
Thank you v m Simon,

One more thing, Do we eject old tape and put a new one inside constantly or put it whenever we want to


Does the device itself uses cleaning tape to clean heads after a period  or we have to do CLEAN manually doing our own calculations using process you wrote earlier ?


I found that keeping the CLN tape in Cleaning slot constantly, makes the CLN tape get used more. but if this is required then I can continue keeping the tape. I have got 5 new CLN tapes now. and old/EXPIRED is still inside in SLOT