5
Precautions for LTO Tape/Drive Use
Although our products are fully inspected and adjusted prior to shipment, please keep in mind the
following points.
1. Recording may suddenly abort due to a hardware malfunction or unexpected failure in rare
cases.
We cannot guarantee or be held responsible for the loss or modification of contents.
2. We highly recommend configuring a redundant LTO system, due to the possibility of data
recording, writing, playing or loading failure caused by an LTO tape or drive malfunction.
3. If an error occurs while reading or writing the LTO tape, a number will be displayed on the
single-character display (SCD) (see 5-1-1
. “Status Lights”) to the right of the LTO tape
cartridge loading slot. In such case, see Appendix A-
1. “Error Codes and Messages.”
4. Do not press the FORCE EJECT button (small hole or blue round button) for more than 10 sec.
(LTO tape data may otherwise become corrupted) unless it is for an emergency (tape cannot
eject, etc.).
5. To write-protect tapes, eject an LTO tape from the drive and slide the write-protect switch to
close the opening. Do not slide the switch while an LTO tape is in the drive.
6. If LTO tapes are not to be used for long periods of time, eject them from drive/s in the proper
manner and store them in their plastic container to protect them from dust, dirt, or other foreign
materials. Do not keep them in LTO drive/s. Doing so will result in errors.
7. Before powering ON the LTO unit, ensure that no condensation has formed on the unit, which
may result in malfunction. Do not power on the unit until moisture has evaporated and the unit
temperature is closer to the ambient temperature. Waiting for about 4 hours before use is
recommended when moving the unit from a cold to warm environment or vice versa.
8. When moving LTO tapes to a location having different environmental temperature / humidity
conditions, allow enough time for the tapes to gradually adapt to the new environment before
reading or writing to them. Over 5 hours may be requied if the temperature difference is
greater than 7ºC or the difference in relative humidity is greater than 13%. More than 13 hours
may be required if the temperature difference is greater than 13ºC or the difference in relative
humidity is greater than 27%. Insufficient adaptation may cause reading or writing errors.
9. Writing retry operations may occur depending on LTO tape or head conditions and reduce the
amount of available free space on tapes. Tape data, therefore, may in some cases be unable
to be copied due to space restrictions caused by retries. To use auto-copy functions, set the
maximum amount of tape cartridge usage to less than 90%.
10. FOR-A Company and its resellers are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or
consequential damage in any way related to products (including without limitation damages for
lost profits and/or data).
