User's Manual

28
DAT 72/DDS-4 Product Manual
Clean
LED
(green)
Media
LED
(green)
Eject
Button
Drive
LED
(amber)
Figure 17. Location of the Eject Button and LEDs on internal Drives
(external drive is similar)
Initializing a Blank 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 automatically
initializes the tape as soon as it receives a Write command from the host computer.
Initializing a blank tape takes about 30 seconds.
DDS Cartridge Compatibility
The Seagate DAT 72 and DDS-4 drives are designed to use data-grade DAT
cartridges, which comply with ANSI specifications listed in the “3.81 mm Helical-Scan
Digital Computer Tape Cartridge for Information Interchange,” ANSI X3B5/89-156
standard.
MRS cartridges have a series of alternate opaque and clear stripes at the beginning
of the tape. These stripes classify the media as datagrade.
Write-Protecting a Cartridge
Figure 18 shows how to write-protect or write-enable a DAT tape using the sliding
write-protect tab. You can only write data to the tape when the tab is in the write-
enabled (closed) position.