Chapter 5: Media
WORM (Write Once, Read Many) Cartridge
74 QuantumLTO-8 HH SAS User’s Guide
• Quantum Ultrium 7 6000 GB WORM tape cartridges
Cleaning Cartridge A specially labeled Quantum LTO Ultrium Cleaning Cartridge is used to
clean the drive head. The drive itself determines when a head needs to
be cleaned. It alerts you by the SCD flashing a C. To clean the head
manually, insert a cleaning cartridge into the tape load compartment
(see Figure
7 on page 42). The drive performs the cleaning
automatically. When the cleaning is
finished, the drive ejects the
cartridge, and the SCD will be blank.
Note: The drive will automatically eject an expired cleaning cartridge
without running the cleaning process. Replace the expired
cleaning cartridge with a new cleaning cartridge and insert it
into the drive.
The Quantum Cleaning Cartridge is valid for 50 uses. The cartridge's
LTO-CM chip tracks the number of times that the cartridge is used.
Caution: After 50 uses, the cleaning cartridge expires. It is no longer
usable, and must be replaced.
Cartridge Memory Chip
(LTO-CM)
All generations of the Quantum LTO Ultrium Data Cartridges include a
Linear Tape-Open Cartridge Memory (LTO-CM) chip (1 in Figure
8 on
page 68), that contains information about the cartridge and the tape
(such as the name of the manufacturer that created the tape),
as well as
statistical information about the cartridge's use. The LTO-CM enhances
the efficiency of the cartridge. For example, the LTO-CM stores the end-
of-data location which, when the next time this cartridge is inserted and
the Write command is issued, enables the drive to quickly locate the
recording area and begin recording. The LTO-CM also aids in
determining the reliability of the cartridge by storing data about its age,
how many times it has been loaded, and how many errors it has
accumulated. Whenever a tape cartridge is unloaded, the tape drive
writes any pertinent information to the cartridge memory.
The storage capacity of the LTO Generation 6, 7, and 8 LTO-CM is 16320
bytes. The storage capacity
of the
LTO Generation 4 and 5 LTO-CM is
8160 bytes. LTO Generations 1, 2, and 3 have an LTO-CM capacity of
4096 bytes.