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Frequently Asked Questions to take advantage
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Imation products. For more information, including brochures, demos, and spec sheets, visit the Travan Technology product page.
Can I reuse my Imation Travan Data Cartridge if I have had a virus on my computer? If you have additional questions or comments, please contact our Technical Support.
Yes, you can. However, determine first if the backup was performed before or after the virus infected your computer.
If the backup was performed before, the tape cartridge can be used with no risk of re-infection once the system hard drive was cleaned and is free of any viruses.
If the backup was performed after, or if you are not sure the last backup is free of any virus, you should not attempt to recover or read any of the files from the infected backup set as this can re-infect your computer. Instead, place the Imation Travan™ Data Cartridge (Imation 5.25-inch or mini tape cartridge), in the drive and go to the Tools tab or Utility tab in your software. You can do a Security Erase or Initialize to insure that the tape is blank. The Overwrite command can also help ensure that any virus that had been stored with your files can not be restored to your hard drive.
Caution: Do not bulk erase the Imation Travan Data Cartridge as it will eliminate formats and/or servo tracks which are essential to the operation of the cartridge.
For best results we recommend that you follow the drive manufacturer's cleaning recommendations, as shown in your drive owner's manual.
Generally drives operated or stored in a normal, reasonably clean, office environment should be cleaned once a month. Drives operated or stored in less than optimum environments should be cleaned more frequently.
The Seagate 40GB drive is backward compatible to read already written Imation Travan™ NS20 tape cartridges. However, the drive will not write to an Imation Travan NS20 tape. Backing up to a blank NS20 tape is not possible. You may read previously captured backups without a step to convert the documentation to the new NS40 tapes. New backups or altering backups originally created on Imation Travan NS20 media must be done on Imation Travan NS40 tapes with the Seagate 40GB drive.
Drives designed for Travan™ cartridges of a given capacity will not work with higher capacity Travan cartridges. If you have an older drive and need more capacity, we recommend you invest in a newer NS20 or Travan 40 drive. These drives will store more capacity and backup your data faster. Before you upgrade, contact the drive manufacturer to see if the new drive will read your old tapes. If not, use your old drive and backup the tapes to a new drive or other rewriteable media before you make the swtich.
Travan™ NS8 cartridges are compatible with your Travan 8GB drive.
Travan™ NS20 tape cartridge will work in your Travan 20GB drive.
Travan™ 8GB cartridges can be used in your Travan NS8 drive.
Travan™ 4 and Travan 8GB cartridges are comparable and can be used in the same drives.