How often do you reckon you should clean a SDLT tape drive thats been used for several hours every day, about once a month?

 

On most SDLT's nowadays when they need cleaning they tell you, although we do ours once a month just to be on the safeside, a cleaning tape doesn t cost quite as much as millions of pounds of lost data (and job!)

Daz

 

Used to clean the one I looked after at work every week. Especially as I had a 4 weekly tape schedule. That way I maximised the life of the data tapes as well.

 

Even though they will indicate a need for cleaning, If i was using the drive to backup evey day, I'd clean it once a week.

We're talking about the ability to RESTORE your data here. This is not the time to scrimp on cleaning cartriges or the time taken to run the clean process.

Don't take the risk for something that will take 2 extra mins.