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Tape Degaussing Cleaning & Testing: Degaussers |  Cleaning & Testing |  Tape Degaussing Service |  About Degaussing |  Erasing |  Why Clean Tape?

Can you believe magnetic computer tape, some forty years old, is still used today! Believe it, because we recycle round-reel tape. Some of the tape we receive, we don’t even try to test and reuse. It is so old and sticky we cannot imagine firms have stored this product so long. And we get calls weekly from users trying to read older tape that either flakes off or is so sticky it can stop tape-drive motors from advancing at the prescribed speed necessary to read the tape.

Here’s another fact that may startle you. If the older tapes had been properly cared for and stored correctly most of them would probably run. Certainly binder hydrolysis and various chemical processes will degrade tape. However, life expectancy and continuous error-free write/read capability depends upon several factors directly related to how the user maintains the tape library.

Badly deteriorating tape is in this condition due to mishandling and poor storage. With older magnetic tape, error correction was able to handle a certain amount of abuse and debris damage. However, today’s extremely sophisticated metal-particle tapes, with capabilities of much larger storage and different recording schematics, and digital linear tape, which is 128-track serpentine longitudinal recording, are going to demand a different level of care and handling. Newer yet is the super DLT, which is Quantum’s developed laser-guided magnetic recording with a transfer rate of 11MB/sec. Still think you can just put it on an open shelf?

Let's review just two important steps that will improve the life of your tape library and provide error-free recording, or close to it.

Care and Handling:   Remember that with open-round reel tape you could see blowouts and cinched tape. DLT tape is not visible so you need to know that the tape may have improper tension, rewind, and may have dirt and contamination inside the cartridge. Not only is the tape expensive it holds extremely valuable information. Just because you have a backup doesn’t mean that data is in any better shape than the one you originally recorded. Periodic cleaning and rewinding to original tension will increase the performance of each tape.

Storage:   DLT tape should have a storage life of 30 years, as long as the tape is stored in the case and the reel axis is horizontal. More important, though, is the environment in which the tape is stored. Ideal storage is in a room that is non-fluctuating 65 degrees Fahrenheit with 40 percent relative humidity.