Switching on the Drive Internal drives: Switch on the computer to switch on the drive. External drives: Switch on the drive using the power switch on the rear panel by pressing the side with the I symbol down, and then switch on the computer. Wait for the tape drive to complete its self-test routine, during which the Tape light flashes. This should take about 5 seconds. When the Tape light goes out, the drive is ready to accept a DDS cartridge. If There Are Problems During the Self-Test If the Tape light goes off but the Media Caution light shows steady amber at the end of the self-test, this indicates a fault condition: If you have just installed the drive, check the installation for loose connections and repeat the self-test. Try the troubleshooting procedures or run TapeAssure to determine what the problem is. If the fault condition persists, call for service. Loading and Unloading a Cartridge Use the correct type of cartridge for your drive. Ensure that only one label is stuck to the label area of the cartridge. Never use non-standard labels, and never stick anything to the cartridge other than in the label area. To load a cartridge Insert the cartridge into the slot in front of the drive with the label uppermost. Apply gentle pressure on the rear of the cartridge until the drive takes the cartridge and loads it. Do not try to force the cartridge if it does not load properly. The drive will eject the cartridge after about 10 seconds so you can load it again. When you insert a cartridge, the drive performs a short load sequence. This takes about 5 seconds, during which the Tape light flashes green. When the load sequence is finished, the Tape light shows steady green. HP SureStore DAT drives are configured to detect DDS Media Recognition System cartridges. Any cartridge that is not DDS Media Recognition System will be treated as write-protected. This means you will only be able to read to a non-DDS cartridge, not write to it. To unload a cartridge: Press the Unload button on the front panel. During the unload sequence the Tape light flashes green. The drive completes any task it is currently performing, winds the tape to the beginning and ejects the cartridge. The sequence can take up to 25 seconds for a write-enabled cartridge and 10 seconds for a write-protected cartridge. The sequence may take longer if the tape needs to be rewound first. Remove the cartridge and store it in its plastic case.

Write-Protecting Cartridges

If you want to protect the data on a cartridge from being altered or overwritten, you can write-protect the cartridge. To write-protect a cartridge, slide the tab on the rear of the cartridge so that the recognition hole is open, as shown below.

Caution: Write-protection will not prevent a cartridge being erased by bulk-erasure or degaussing.

Forcing Ejection

If you press the Unload button when the drive is busy, the drive may take some time to respond because it will finish the task it is performing first. This ensures that no data is lost.

On rare occasions, however, a system or software fault may cause the tape drive not to respond to an Unload request. In this situation, you can force ejection. There are two ways of doing this:

• Press the Unload button three times within 5 minutes.
• Hold the Unload button down for at least 15 seconds.

Following either of these actions, the drive waits until 35 seconds have passed from the time of the first press, to give the normal eject procedure a chance to proceed. After this period, it immediately releases the tape and ejects the cartridge, regardless of what operation it was performing. The drive is then reset as though you had turned the power off and then on again.

Caution: You may lose data if you force ejection of a cartridge. The tape may also become unreadable because an EOD (End of Data) mark may not be properly written.