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Chapter 2
2. Operating the Tape Drive
This section includes information about the following:
• reading the tape drive’s LEDs
• selecting data cartridges
• setting the write-protect switch on the data cartridge
• loading and unloading a data cartridge
Reading the LEDs
The tape drive uses three LEDs (Figure 2-1) to indicate its operating states.
The LEDs indicate the following general conditions:
• When the top (orange) LED is flashing, the tape drive has an error or
needs cleaning.
• When the middle LED is on or flashing, SCSI bus activity is occurring.
The middle LED can be orange or green as follows:
Orange The tape loaded in the tape drive is in one of the
compression formats (8500c or 8200c). When the tape is
8500c format, the LED is always orange even though
compression can be turned off.
Green The tape loaded in the tape drive is in one of the
non-compression formats (8500 or 8200).
• When the bottom (green) LED is on, a data cartridge is loaded in the
tape drive. When this LED is flashing, the tape is moving or the tape
drives needs cleaning.
Table 2-1 shows a specific combination of LEDs that may occur during tape
drive operation and the tape drive states that they indicate.