User's Guide

Understanding the Drive LEDs Clean LED
39
Clean LED
The Clean LED indicates whether a drive needs to be cleaned.
Media LED
The Media LED indicates whether a DAT cartridge is operating normally.
Table 8. Clean LED
LED Status Description
ON continuously Drive requires cleaning. Use only an approved DDS cleaning cartridge.
Flashing slowly (approximately
ON 2 seconds, OFF 1 second)
Tape cartridge in use has exceeded a predefined soft-error threshold.
This signal is a warning only and does not indicate that data has been
compromised. Remove the tape and clean the drive using an approved
DDS cleaning cartridge. If the Clean LED still flashes after cleaning and
reinserting the original data cartridge, use a new cartridge for future
backups.
Flashing rapidly A cleaning cartridge that has exceeded its useful life has been inserted
into the drive. Replace the cleaning cartridge with a new approved
DDS cleaning cartridge.
Table 9. Media LED
LED Status Description
ON continuously A DAT cartridge has been inserted and the drive is operating normally.
Flashing rapidly Drive could not write the tape correctly (maximum rewrite count
exceeded) and the write operation failed. Clean the drive heads using
an approved DDS cleaning cartridge. If you reinsert the original data
cartridge and the LED continues flashing, insert a new data cartridge
and retry the operation.
NOTE: As routine maintenance, follow the cleaning recommendations listed in Table 5.