Initializing A Blank Dat Cartridge; Dat Cartridge Compatibility - Seagate DDS Installationsanleitung

Seagate DAT Drive Installation Manual—English

Initializing a blank DAT cartridge

When you insert a blank cartridge into the drive for the first
time, the drive takes about 10 to 12 seconds to determine
that the tape is blank. The drive will automatically initialize the
tape as soon as it receives a Write command from the host
computer. Initializing a blank tape takes about 30 seconds.
While a tape is being initialized, the normal write operation
continues until all internal buffers are filled. Ejecting the
cartridge before the initialization is complete causes the
procedure to abort. The initialization will restart from the
beginning the next time a Write command is received.
Note: The data buffer of the drive is flushed to tape if a
Rewind command is issued, if the eject button is pushed,
or if a delay in SCSI activity occurs. By default, the delay
before the flush occurs is set to one minute. However,
this delay time can be modified by the host application
using a Mode Select command.

DAT cartridge compatibility

Seagate DAT drives are designed to use data-grade DDS
DAT cartridges that comply with ANSI specifications listed in
the "3.81 mm Helical-Scan Digital Computer Tape Cartridge
for Information Interchange," ANSI X3B5/89-156 standard. To
ensure optimal data integrity and reliability, we recommend
using the following Seagate-qualified, DDS DAT cartridges:
•
Model M31300 (60 meters)
•
Model M32000 (90 meters)
•
Model M34000 (120 meters)
•
Model M312000 (125 meters; DDS-3 only)
DDS-2 and DDS-3 DAT drives also recognize 120-meter
MP+ cartridges and other MRS cartridges when MRS is
enabled. MRS cartridges have a series of alternate opaque
and clear stripes at the beginning of the tape. These stripes
classify the media as data-grade, rather than audio-grade.
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