Hp Data protector cleaning tape usage

Cleaning Tape Usage
The cleaning status is NOT checked while a medium is in the drive and being written to. The status of the cleaning request is checked only when a medium is being loaded or changed. So, if the drive sets the cleaning bit, part way through a backup session, the medium is not immediately unloaded. It will be used until it is full, assuming that there is enough data to fill it, in the current backup session.
When medium #1 is unloaded, the cleaning request will be checked; the cleaning tape will be loaded and used. After that, medium #2 will be loaded to continue the backup. It is possible that medium #1 is in bad shape and could be the cause of the cleaning request. However,
Data Protector assumes the medium is still 'Good' and does not mark medium #1 as 'Poor'. The medium will be used again, when it is the 'least recently used'.
If medium #1 is really faulty, this will show up next time it is used, when the write operations fail. Then it will be marked 'Poor' and not used again.
DDS cleaning tapes are a fixed length, with just enough for '25 times 30 seconds' of cleaning. When 30 seconds of cleaning has completed successfully, the clean bit on the drive is reset. The cleaning tape moves forward, over one section of tape, for each 30 seconds of cleaning and it NEVER rewinds! It just moves along until it gets to the end and then it stops.
Once it is at the end, it is an 'expired' cleaning tape. If you load an 'expired' cleaning tape, the tape is active for less than 20 seconds, it does not actually do any cleaning and the cleaning bit is NOT reset. Data Protector can initiate a cleaning operation when the drive sets the cleaning bit. After the cleaning is done, Data Protector will recheck the cleaning bit. If it is still set, Data Protector will terminate the session and will report that the cleaning tape was requested twice for the device.