System and Method for Cleaning a Tape Drive

An article of manufacture including a data storage medium, said data storage medium including a set of machine-readable instructions that are executable by a processing device to implement an algorithm, said algorithm comprising the steps of:

• detecting a degraded status of an input/output transducer of a tape drive;
• selecting and inserting a cleaner cartridge into the tape drive, said cleaner cartridge including a cleaner tape, wherein the cleaner tape contains timing-based servo information;
• moving the cleaner tape over the input/output transducer;
• reading said timing-based servo information from the cleaner tape;
• and
• ascertaining a cleanliness status of the input/output transducer based on the timing-based servo information read from the cleaner tape.

A tape drive cleaning system, comprising:

• a tape drive including an input/output transducer, said input/output transducer including servo heads;
• and
• a tape cartridge including a cleaner tape, wherein the cleaner tape includes an aggressive cleaning frontcoat section and an alternative frontcoat section;
• wherein the cleaner tape further includes timing based servo information and the cleaner tape is moved over the input/output transducer, the servo heads read the timing-based servo information, and the tape drive utilizes the timing-based information read by the servo heads to ascertain a cleanliness status of the drive head.

A tape cartridge, comprising:

• an exterior cartridge shell;
• a tape reel;
• and
• a cleaner tape including an aggressive cleaning frontcoat section and an alternative frontcoat section.