Never ship a cartridge in a commercial shipping envelope. Always place it in a box or package.
If you ship the cartridge in a cardboard box or a box of a sturdy material, ensure the following:
Place the cartridge in polyethylene plastic wrap or bags to protect it from dust, moisture, and other contaminants.
Pack the cartridge snugly; do not allow it to move around.
Double-box the cartridge (place it inside a box, then place that box inside the shipping box) and add padding between the two boxes (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Double-boxing tape cartridges for shipping
Proper acclimation and environmental conditions
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Before you use a tape cartridge, acclimate it to the operating environment for 24 hours or the time necessary to prevent condensation in the drive (the time will
vary, depending on the environmental extremes to which the cartridge was exposed).
Ensure that all surfaces of a cartridge are dry before inserting it.
Do not expose the cartridge to moisture or direct sunlight.
Do not expose recorded or blank cartridges to stray magnetic fields of greater than 100 oersteds (for example, terminals, motors, video equipment, X-ray
equipment, or fields that exist near high-current cables or power supplies). Such exposure can cause the loss of recorded data or make the blank cartridge
unusable.
Maintain the conditions that are described in Environmental and shipping specifications for tape cartridges.
Perform a thorough inspection
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After you purchase a cartridge and before you use it, complete the following steps:
Inspect the cartridge's packaging to determine potential rough handling.
When a cartridge is inspected, open only the cartridge door. Do not open any other part of the cartridge case. The upper and lower parts of the case are held
together with screws. Separating them destroys the usefulness of the cartridge.
Inspect the cartridge for damage before you use or store it.
Inspect the rear of the cartridge (the part that loads first into the tape load compartment) and ensure that there are no gaps in the seam of the cartridge case (see
1 in Figure 1 and 4 inFigure 1 ). If there are gaps in the seam (see Figure 1), the leader pin might be dislodged. Go to Repositioning or reattaching a leader pin.
Figure 1. Checking for gaps in the seams of a cartridge
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