tape drive showing Cleaning Required?

[newifu]

After backup to a few new tapes, the drive shows "Cleanning Required", I ran cleaning job successfully, but the amber light is still on and the message is still there.The autoloader is a IBM 120/240 loader and the drive is 20/40GB DDS/4 Tape drive. How to get rid of the message? Any help wil be appreciated.

 

[LawnBoy]

Clean it again.

All of the DDS/x decks that I've ever used don't actually "run a cleaning job". When you put in a cleaning tape, the deck looks for the header info on the tape. Since cleaning tapes don't have any header info, the deck spits the tape out as unrecognized media.

So the only cleaning that occurs is while the deck tries to read the header, which is a pretty short time. I've been known to put the cleaning tape in 3 or 4 times whenever the 'clean me' light comes on.

Yes, theoretically you shorten the lifespan of the heads, but if the heads are gummed up you can't use them anyway...


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[newifu]

Thanks for the reply Lawnboy. I actually cleaned it a few times. Will do it more times and see how it goes.

 

[newifu]

My clean jobs are most successful, but the message is still there