Write window protection mode in a tape library

A data protection method comprising:

• providing a tape library connected to a network via a data connection, the tape library comprising a plurality of tape cartridges, a plurality of tape drives and a microprocessor;
• the tape library disabling all of the plurality of tape drives from writing archive data incoming over the network to any of the tape cartridges during a scheduled no-write window of time that is defined by an off amount of time in a day;
• the tape library receiving at least some of the archive data transmitted to the tape library over the data connection during a scheduled write window of time that is defined by a predetermined on amount of time in the day, the off-schedule and the on-schedule repeat at a scheduled time over at least two consecutive days;
• and
• reading archived data from the tape library anytime during the scheduled write window of time and the scheduled no-write window of time via the data connection.

A tape library protection method comprising:

• connecting a tape library to a wide area network, the tape library comprising a plurality of tape cartridges, a plurality of tape drives, a random-access memory and a microprocessor;
• enabling the tape library to write archive data received over the wide area network to at least one of the plurality of tape cartridge during a write window of time in a day, the write window of time is a scheduled amount of time that is less than 6 hours in the day;
• disabling the tape library from writing the archive data received over the wide area network to any of the tape cartridges when outside of the write window of time;
• repeating the write window of time over at least two of the days;
• and
• reading archived data from the tape library anytime in the day.