AIT Drive Reference Guide
4–1
4
Cleaning the AIT Drive
Reliable backup of your system is the product of at least four components:
•
A reliable tape drive
•
Quality cassettes
•
Regular backup schedule with backup media stored off-site
•
Routine tape drive maintenance
Compaq tape drives are designed to operate reliably under worst-case conditions;
however, they require simple routine maintenance to operate efficiently. Regular
cleaning is the most essential step in properly maintaining a tape drive and preventing
errors.
Reliability of Backup Devices
The reliability of any backup device is directly related to its duty cycle (the number of
hours per day that the device is in use). For example, if a tape drive designed for 1-GB
backups is being used to back up a 10-GB computer, the result on that drive will be
premature aging and reliability problems.
Importance of Routine Cleaning
The tape drive has a cleaning roller built in, which assists in preventing and recovering
from head contamination. This feature minimizes buildup on the read/write heads so
fewer cleaning cycles with a cleaning cassette are required. However, Compaq
recommends a routine cleaning schedule every 100 hours of use to keep the tape drive
in good working order. The drive also needs cleaning when the drive Status LED
displays long flashes with short pauses (see Chapter 3, “Operating the AIT Drive,”
Table 3-2).
IMPORTANT: Regular cleaning is vital to trouble-free operation of any tape device. Failure to
follow recommended cleaning procedures could result in serious damage to the tape drive.
Summary of Contents for StorageWorks
Page 6: ...vi AIT Drive Reference Guide Contents ...
Page 12: ......
Page 16: ...1 4 AIT Drive Reference Guide Overview of the AIT Drive ...
Page 24: ...2 8 AIT Drive Reference Guide Installing the Software Drivers ...
Page 32: ...3 8 AIT Drive Reference Guide Operating the AIT Drive ...
Page 36: ...4 4 AIT Drive Reference Guide Cleaning the AIT Drive ...
Page 53: ...AIT Drive Reference Guide A 5 Agency Notices Taiwanese Notice ...
Page 54: ...A 6 AIT Drive Reference Guide Agency Notices ...
Page 60: ...C 4 AIT Drive Reference Guide Specifications ...
Page 64: ...D 4 AIT Drive Reference Guide Data Compression ...
Page 66: ...E 2 AIT Drive Reference Guide Daisy Chaining ...