Bull ESCALA E250, Use And Maintenance, Page: 52 / 162

3-12
Setup Guide
Archive Life
If proper storage conditions are maintained, quality 8 mm tapes can have a recorded data
archive life of over 30 years:
• Use tapes with 4 to 20 passes on them. In the first few passes, new tapes shake off or
shed excess magnetic media and binder deposited during the tape manufacturing
process, these may result in higher soft error rates during the first few passes
•
Pre-condition the tapes:
– Write/Read tape to measure error statistics (from BOT to EOT)
– Do this a minimum of 4 passes and a maximum of 20 passes
– Do this on a known good drive
– Physically examine the tape pack for correct winding
– Use only tapes that have been temperature stabilized.
• Maintain constant environment:
– Best environment is 18 ° C (65 ° F) at 40% RH
– Control environment while transporting tapes
– Ensure no chemical conditions exist
– No dust
– Have positive air pressure.
• Long term archiving conditions:
– 5
°
C to 32
°
C (41
°
F to 90
°
F)
– Relative humidity 20% to 60% non condensing
– Wet bulb 26 ° C (79 ° F) maximum.
• Local archiving conditions range:
– 18 ° C to 40 ° C (65 ° F to 104 ° F)
– Relative humidity 40% to 60% non condensing.
• Store on edge in their protective enclosures and do not stack anything on top of them
• Keep the drive clean
• Store data in a streaming (not Start/Stop) mode; run the tape from BOT to EOT at normal
speed
• Exercise the tapes once every 12 months by reading the entire tape, to remove any
stress which has built up in the tape pack during the storage interval; this interval can be
lessened at lower temperature conditions, and should be increased at higher temperature
conditions.