Specifications

Dell DDS/DAT Media Handbook Page 18
• Never ship a cartridge in a commercial shipping envelope. Always place it in a box or package.
• If you ship the cartridge in a cardboard box or a box of a sturdy material, ensure the following:
o Place the cartridge in polyethylene plastic wrap or bags to protect it from dust, moisture, and
other contaminants.
o Pack the cartridge snugly. Do not allow it to move around.
o Double-box the cartridge (place it inside a box, then place that box inside the shipping box) and
add padding between the two boxes
7.4 Cartridge Storage Conditions
Provide Proper Acclimation and Environmental Conditions
• Before you use a cartridge, let it acclimate to the normal operating environment for 24 hours.
• Ensure that all surfaces of a cartridge are dry before inserting it.
• Do not expose the cartridge to moisture or direct sunlight.
• Do not expose recorded cartridges to stray magnetic fields (for example, terminals, motors, video
equipment, X-ray equipment, or fields that exist near high-current cables or power supplies). Such
exposure can cause the loss of recorded data.
• Maintain the following environmental conditions outlined in the table below.
Environmental Factor
Operating
Non
Operational
Storage
Temperature
5 to 45
degrees
Celsius
(41 to 113
degrees
Fahrenheit)
-40 to 65
degrees
Celsius
(-40 to 149
degrees
Fahrenheit)
Relative humidity (non-condensing) 20 to 80% 0 to 90%
Wet bulb temperature
28 degrees
Celsius
(82.4
degrees
Fahrenheit)
No
condensation
Table 6 Tape Environmental Specifications
7.5 Cartridge life
• Durability - 2,000 passes on any area of full tape backups.
o Each time media gets loaded, unloaded, written to, read from, the media must pass through
contact patches on the cylinder head, which can eventually wear down the media.