1. Library Guide
  2. Tape Cartridges (Media)
  3. Media Labels
  4. Tape Cartridge Types

Tape Cartridge Types

There are three cartridge types: data, cleaning, and diagnostic.

  • Data tapes — used to store customer data. The label is six-character volume ID followed by a two character media ID. Such as ABC123L8, where ABC123 is the volume ID and L8 is the media ID for an LTO-8 cartridge.

  • Cleaning tapes — used to clean tape drives. The label is a six-character volume ID with CLNUnn for plus the cleaning-specific media ID, where CLNU is the cleaning tape identifier and nn is a sequence of numbers (for example, CLNU01CU would be a universal LTO cleaning tape).

  • Diagnostic tapes — used for diagnosing tape drive issues. The label is a six-character volume ID with DG[space]nnn plus the media ID, where DG[space] is the diagnostic tape identifier, and nnn is a sequence of numbers (for example, DG 001L7 would be an LTO7 diagnostic tape label).

Related Topics

M8 Cartridge Type

The M8 cartridge is an LTO7 cartridge with increased storage capacity.

An M8 cartridge is an LTO7 cartridge initialized to a 9TB capacity by an LTO8 drive (instead of the standard 6TB capacity of a standard LTO7 cartridge). For an LTO8 drive to initialize an LTO7 cartridge to M8, the cartridge must be new (unused) and contain an M8 label. Only LTO8 drives can read and write M8 cartridges.

The library must be at code 3.50 or above to support the M8 cartridge type.