Tape Drive Cleaning and Tape

["Bonnie Lokenvitz" <BLokenvitz@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Please point me to some generic manual for tape operations.

The tapes for our 520's 4685 tape drive are swapped out by our
facilities person five days a week.  These ten tapes have been in use
for two years.

We are getting 'Device TAP01 needs to be cleaned.' more frequently
causing the backup to fail.  My contention is we need to replace the
tape.

Also do you wait for the light on the tape drive to be lit before you
clean the drive?  Or do you do this on a more pro-active schedule.

The cleaning tape is fairly new.

Thank you, 
Bonnie Lokenvitz