Handling cartridges

•Do not touch the tape media.•Do not attempt to clean the tape path or tape guides inside the cartridge.

•Do not leave cartridges in excessively dry or humid conditions. Do not leave cartridges in direct sunlight or in places where magnetic fields are present (for example, under telephones, next to monitors or near transformers).

•Do not drop cartridges or handle them roughly.

•Do not stick more than one label onto the cartridge label area; extra labels can cause the cartridges to jam in the drive. Stick labels onto the label area only.

•Make sure that the magazine label is stuck firmly in the recessed label area on the side of the magazine. If the label is stuck somewhere other than in the label area, the magazine may jam in the mechanism.

•See the insert included with the tape cartridge for storage conditions.

Getting the most out of cartridges and drives

•Use mostly the latest media type (DDS-4 media for an HP StorageWorks DAT 40x6 autoloader, DAT 72 media for an HP StorageWorks DAT 72x6 autoloader).

•Use media for the recommended number of times (100 backups). Overuse of the tape will cause it to degrade and possibly shed tape debris in the drive. Too many new tapes can also cause wear of the drive as they are rougher than used ones.

•Do not verify (DDS does read-after-write checking automatically).

•Do not overload the server during backups. Maximize the transfer rate (run overnight with no other processes) and use incremental backups if convenient.

•Do not overuse your autoloader—it is designed for approximately four hours of tape pulling per day, not constant usage—and clean the drive regularly. See page 31.

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