All DDS-certified media is electronically checked to withstand at least 2,000 passes. Under optimum environmental conditions (50% relative humidity, 22 degree Celsius), this is equivalent to about 100-150 backup operations. This takes into account that an area of tape may have several passes during a backup, either because streaming cannot be maintained, or because the backup software package repeatedly accesses certain areas of tape.

Hewlett Packard also suggests a limit of 75 backup operations when the operating environments are less than ideal; for example, sustained low humidity, a very slow host computer which causes more streaming failure (the machine cannot keep up with the optimal I/O speed of the tape device), backup software package which causes frequent accesses to a certain area of tape.