Operation and Maintenance
Handling Travan cartridges
15
Handling Travan cartridges
Although Travan tape cartridges are ruggedly built, they must be handled with care. Observe the fol-
lowing precautions:
•
Store cartridges in their protective cases when you are not using them.
•
Keep cartridges away from dust, dirt and moisture.
•
Keep cartridges away from direct sunlight and heat sources, such as radiators or warm air
ducts.
•
Do not expose cartridges to temperature extremes or rapid changes in temperature.
•
Keep cartridges away from sources of electromagnetic fields, such as telephones, computer
monitors, printers, dictation equipment, mechanical or printing calculators, motors or bulk
erasers.
•
Do not open the tape access door of a cartridge or touch the tape itself. One fingerprint can
prevent the drive from reading information on the tape.
Retensioning tapes
Travan tapes must be retensioned frequently to ensure data integrity and optimize
drive performance.
If you ever have a problem reading a tape, retensioning may solve the prob-
lem. See your software manual for tape retensioning instructions.
We recommend retensioning whenever:
•
A cartridge is being used for the first time
•
A cartridge has not been used for over a month
•
A cartridge has been dropped
•
A cartridge has been shipped from one location to another
•
A cartridge has been exposed to a significant change in temperature
For optimum performance, cartridges should be retensioned prior to each use, if your backup soft-
ware does not retension them automatically. See the literature included with your tape cartridge for
additional cartridge-handling recommendations.
Cleaning the tape drive mechanism
We recommend periodic cleaning of the tape drive mechanism using an approved dry-process Tra-
van cleaning cartridge. Generally, the more severe the operating conditions (the greater the amount
of dust or moisture in the air), the more often the drive should be cleaned. Be sure to clean the drive
immediately if you observe an increase in the number of errors while running your backup software,
or if a TapeAlert cleaning message is displayed.
With the newer generation of Travan tape drive heads used in these drives, only the dry-process
cleaning-cartridge method is recommended. This method does not involve any flammable materials
and provides a clean recording surface by wiping away debris as the cleaning material passes
across the recording head. Residents of the U.S. can purchase Travan cleaning cartridges (model
number CTMCL) directly from Certance on the web at:
http://shop.certance.com.
