LTO Durability

Fujifilm LTO media has been engineered and lab tested for 1M head pass durability and 20K+ load/unload
cycles. However, it is difficult to correlate head passes and expected/useful media life outside of the lab given
the variety of usage environments, conditions, equipment, and practices.

Rather than a rigid specific number of uses recommendation, best practice is to monitor media usage history,
media/drive error activity & performance and act accordingly (through the use of the Fujifilm DCA, or Fujifilm
Storage IQ RVA appliance, for example).

As a general guideline, 260 Full uses is recommended - based on the assumption that if users fully read/write
to/from a cartridge once a week, the cartridge can be in service for at least 5 years.

Fujifilm recommends media replacement and/or system upgrades every 5 years in order to take full
advantage of the latest tape/drive performance, and capacity advancements, as well as to avoid technological
obsolescence.

**Archival Life**
Fujifilm media has a life expectancy of greater than 30 years when stored under recommended conditions.

**Useful life**
Media wear, under normal usage, should not be an issue.

However, LTO media service life is highly dependent upon usage environment and practices:

-Storage/usage environment: Minimize temperature and humidity extremes and cycling. If necessary,
acclimate cartridges prior to use in the usage environment for 24 hours.

-A dust free environment should be maintained.

-Avoid Improper cartridge handling (dropped cartridges, rough transportation, improper packaging)

-Drive Streaming- Optimize software and hardware settings to ensure drive operation in a streaming mode to
avoid 'shoe shining'. ‘Shoe shining’ can prematurely wear media and drives, and negatively impacts
performance.

-Optimal Drive condition: proper maintenance, cleaning, and recommended firmware revision level

Any problems in the above areas can significantly decrease the useful life and performance.

Recommended Environmental Conditions

<Operating>
Temperature: 10 °C to 45 °C (50 to 113F)
Humidity: 10 to 80%
Max. wet bulb temperature: 26C (79F)

<Short Term Storage>

The short term storage environment is recommended for cartridge storage durations of up to six months
Temperature: 16 to 35C (61 to 95F)
Humidity: 20 to 80%
Max. wet bulb temperature: 26C (79F)

<Archival Conditions-Long term storage>

Temperature: 16 to 27C (61 to 80F) 65F ideal
Humidity: 20 to 50% (No dew condensation)
Max. wet bulb temperature: 26C (79F)