[PLUG] Cleaning a DI30 drive without the cleaning tape...

[Michael C. Robinson]

I can find people selling data tapes for the drive, but nobody sells 
a cleaning tape where google pops up one obscure warehouse somewhere
that is selling a cleaning tape for who knows which drive made
by Onstream costing darn near $40.

Is there any possibility of cleaning the DI30 with alcohol and 
q-tips?  Maybe I can take a data tape that doesn't work and 
convert it to a cleaning tape by shaping some material to the 
same dimensions as the media, impregnating that with the right 
cleaning chemical, then respooling with the custom made
cleaning ribbon.  These tapes are very easy to open.  The other 
idea I have is scotch taping the media in a cartridge and 
spreading a light layer of alcohol on the tape, but I 
probably run the risk of jamming the drive if I try that.
I don't even know if alcohol is safe to use to try and 
clean the heads inside.  If the heads aren't dirty, their
broken.  

I've looked at getting a drive that's know to be good
for the four to seven working tapes I have, but I haven't 
seen one worth paying for where the ones on E-Bay can't be 
trusted since this is where I got this one.  Even if I got 
a clean one, how long could I go without a cleaning tape?

I'm assuming that tar and taper crash with an io error that they
can't read the tape because the heads are dirty, the drive is
Linux certified.  I would think I could try the drive under
Windows, thing is that I doubt even if Windows did work that 
it would necessarily check the integrity of what was written 
to the tape failing to rule out dirty heads.

If anyone knows how to get a cleaning tape that will work for cheap
instead of trying to make one or pay $40 for potentially the wrong 
one, that'd be great.

If anyone wonders why I'm not going with Keith's idea, it's because 
I'm not USB2 ready.  I have Inclose and Data Bridge drive trays,
but they are the ide type which Linux currently doesn't support hot
swap for.

While I'm on the topic, this drive royally stinks where I have five 
new tapes and two new ones that are probably good, anyone know how 
to liquidate this stuff online?  If I can get $15 a tape for the 
new ones that'd be reasonable giving me nearly enough to buy a 
hard drive.  I've tried some of the new tapes in this drive, but
I think the tapes are fine.  I have gotten some data to be written
to and restored from a tape as far as what md5sum checking can tell 
me.

     --  Michael Robinson