LTO "drive" cleaning is two phase: self head cleaning; and, if thereafter warranted, cleaning tape utilization. Self cleaning employs a brush to dislodge micro contaminants from the head. Being an open standard, LTO affords participating vendors full flexibility in designing internal cleaning mechanisms. According to interesting whitepaper http://www.overlandstorage.com/whitepapers/ Super_Drive_wp.pdf , IBM's drive performs a single swipe across the head as a tape is loaded and unloaded, where the brush is attached to an arm involved in the tape load/unload process. Other vendors employ a more vigorous and allegedly more thorough self cleaning process, as described in that paper and in the more detailed paper http:// www.overlandstorage.com/whitepapers/LTO_Cleaning_wp.pdf . Incorporating "canyons" into the head design greatly helps trap and isolate debris. (Standard caveat: vendor designs are subject to change.)
As a trained mechanical engineer, I'd really like to know where all the removed debris goes over time. Some of it is certainly going to cling to the brush (especially, stringy dust particles); and most of it is going to either fall to some area below the brush or be propelled to various parts of the drive via the brushing action. Whereas tape drives are open to the atmosphere anyway, the detached particles are of little additional concern. The stuff which accumulates on the brush is what would concern me, as it tends to re- contaminate the head and possibly abrade it. The cumulative customer experience with LTO certainly seems to demonstrate, however, that it is extremely effective at dealing with contaminants such that the head-tape interface remains highly reliable. Richard Sims
