Certified Media


With IT budgets shrinking and managers looking for ways to cut costs, many companies are looking to Certified tape media as a way to reduce their expenditures. AES provides a wide array of certified media to help protect our environment and to dramatically reduce your media budget. All of the specifications for our certified media exceed industry standards and carry a 10 Year Guarantee.




What is Certified Media?

There is no industry-wide accepted definition, and in fact, this tape media is sometimes referred to as remanufactured, recycled, used, reconditioned or reclaimed. Buyer beware, although we recycle the media, our Certified Media is not the same. We define Certified Media as media that is tested on original manufacturers' tape drives and test equipment using similar methods that were employed in the 100% certification of newly manufactured media. Our testing process utilizes our proprietary software to insure that the error levels guaranteed are at least as good as those demanded by industry standards for new media.


There are some companies that sell used media as "new" product. While properly certified media will perform well in most data center environments, caution should be exercised when sourcing this product. You should always determine exactly what testing and degaussing procedures are adhered to by the vendor and make sure that the media has met or exceeded acceptable error level criteria such as ANSI. Improper testing and degaussing can result in tape media that has security and functionality issues such as low signal-to-noise ratio, short archival life, and damage from mishandling or improper storage conditions.

As tape cartridge capacities have increased, it has become increasingly important to insure that cartridges are degaussed properly to insure that all data is completely erased. A degausser that is too weak will not destroy all of the data on the cartridge. For example, only a degausser with a high degaussing force will completely erase a high capacity DLT IV tape cartridge and the cartridge should even be passed through several times.

Testing of used cartridges in the certification process should be performed on original manufacturers' drives and evaluation equipment. This insures that the error levels in the media are in an acceptable range. Knowledge and expertise in the production of new tape media is very beneficial as the testing procedures for new and certified tape are similar.If your media requirements can be satisfied with certified media, make sure you choose a company with the expertise and knowledge associated with the highest quality media available.



Why Our Certified Media?

  • We have a 10 year warranty on all of our Certified media.
  • All our Certified tape is tested to meet NEW tape performance criteria.
  • All our Certified magnetic media is marked with our 100% tested stamp for easy recognition.
  • All media is degaussed (erasing all remnants of data from the tape).
  • We test on our proprietary software that ensures the tape drop outs to be significantly better than industry standards for new media.
  • We provide 100% certification on actual tape drives for that media type.



Our Process

  • We physically clean the cartridges in our production facility. We remove all labels and make a physical inspection of every cartridge for damage.
  • We subject every cartridge to a high oersted degausser that removes all remnants of data from the cartridge.
  • Each cartridge is 100% certified on IBM, Storagetek, Quantum and other tape drives. We test with our proprietary software that uncovers real errors. We also test for dropouts that can't be recovered by the systems ECC capability.
  • We provide a labeling & initialization service with the quickest turnaround times in the industry.
  • Our cartridges are shrink-wrapped & packaged in new 30 pack cartons. We offer a 10 year warranty.
  • We stand behind our Certified product line, and every cartridge is marked with our Certified stamp along with the Julian Date.