Cleaning my tape drive?

[TomHD]

Afternoon All,

 

I have been wondering whether I should clean my tape drive?

 

 

I would say yes!? Any issues I should look out for?

 

Thanks, TomHD

[john]

Does the drive not have a light to tell you when it needs cleaning? I know LTO drives used to but I used to just do it once a quarter anyway and never had any issues.

[TomHD]

I'll go and check, thanks @john

[Oaktech]

My old Sony autoloader used to have a cleaning tape loaded all the time and it would just run the cleaning tape after a backup when the read errors exceeded a certain threshold

 

A cleaning tape should do the trick, however you can clean a tape drive with isopropyl alcohol and a lint free antistatic swab, but it's a 'kin delicate job and only to be entertained when the cleaning tape isn't doing it any more.

[TomHD]

Guess it's happy for now then? No auto loader on mine.

[6Foot2]

[ATTACH]37534[/ATTACH]

Guess it's happy for now then? No auto loader on mine.

 

Rotating that image 90° counter-clockwise:

 

[john]

My LTO5 never said clean me I did wonder if its a feature but still did it once a quarter for the few £K it cost for the drive it didnt seem a bad idea.

[TomHD]

@DaveP why rotate? The deck is vertical.

[6Foot2]

@DaveP why rotate? The deck is vertical.

 

Ah, my mistake. Looking at the image it seemed like it 'wanted' to be rotated.