Talk:Tape drive

Advancements TODO
Which vendor and when introduced:
 * Streaming mode instead of start-stop. Elimination of vacuum columns. Elimination of long empty Inter-Record Gaps 1979 IBM 8809
 * Tape directory: IBM patented '93 as DBM, exact model tbd . Archive QIC ? Travan TR-1?
 * fast data access of tape directory: Quantum ?
 * double coated media: Quantum?
 * symmetric phase recording: Quantum?
 * Head assembly servo following tape optical pre-recorded servo tracks (SDLT?)
 * "Cleaning needed" indicator: 3590 ?
 * Automatic head cleaning on each load (LTO?)
 * Tape cartridge barcodes: IBM 3590 ?
 * Speed matching (to decrease shoe-shining) (LTO2?)
 * WORM tape (T9940? AIT-2 in 1999?)
 * Memory chip in the cartridge that keeps relevant information about the tape (AIT-1?)
 * With remote access (AIT-2 in 1999?)
 * Amplifier in the rotating drum, close to the head to reduce noise (active drum) (AIT-2 in 1999?)
 * Tape media (possibly a separate article at some point, several variations of each type exist):
 * Vicalloy - UNISERVO
 * (Iron) Oxide
 * CrO2 Cromium Dioxide
 * MP Metal Partical
 * AME Advance Metal Evaporated (Exabyte Mammoth? AIT-1 in 1996?)
 * AMP Advanced Metal Powder
 * (native) Capacity milestones
 * 100 MB -
 * 1 GB -
 * 10 GB -
 * 100 GB -
 * 400 GB
 * 1 TB - not yet (working on it, its in the oven and will be in market soon)
 * 1 TB - not yet (working on it, its in the oven and will be in market soon)

Tape skew
IIRC, the 6250 drive treated the bits as separately clocked channels and reassembled the bytes. The earlier drives read the bits essentially simultaneously. Consequently, skew adjustments were important; there were special skew adjustment tapes. 200 bpi is 5 mils per bit; 800 bpi is 1.25 mils. The latter skew seems difficult to hold (also consider the manufacturing tolerance of the head). Glrx (talk) 18:56, 10 November 2011 (UTC)


 * This seems like a 9 track tape topic. Skew is not mentioned here or there. ~Kvng (talk) 21:05, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

DAT/DDS drives considered a "bit bucket" (?)
These drives are often described (in a tongue-in-cheek fashion) as a bit-bucket, "write-once/read-none" or NULL device as the probability of actually restoring data off this media approaches or equals zero, according to reports by these drives' users.

Is there any truth to this?? If so, the reliability section may be overly positive? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.65.91.78 (talk • contribs) 05:33, 6 November 2014

First tape library with robotic access
First tape library with robotic access: proposed correction. My recollection is that Livermore Labs had the first robotic tape library. The IBM 7340 Hypertape drive had two cassettes. One was the active cassette used in read/write operations. The standby cassette was used in reel change operations. There was an I/O command to unload the active cassette and replace it with the standby cassette. The intent was that a human operator would then remove the former active cassette and place a new cassette in the standby position. What Livermore did was to automate the external cassette exchange. A small crane plucked the used cassette from the standby position; the model railroad train moved forward and a second crane deposited a new cassette ion the standby position. A patient Wikipedian can perhaps find the monograph which contains this story.Rdmoore6 (talk) 18:22, 12 February 2018 (UTC)


 * This is probably best covered in Tape library which currently only says One of the earliest examples was the IBM 3850 Mass Storage System (MSS), announced in 1974. ~Kvng (talk) 21:05, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Article should be named "Computer tape drive" or similar
A tape drive in general can be audio, sometimes analog data, or digital data. This article, about digital drives, should be named "Computer tape drive" or similar. Pol098 (talk) 17:22, 3 July 2022 (UTC)


 * I agree that an article titled "tape drive" *should* cover both analog tape drives and digital tape drives. But I feel we should follow the Summary style guideline, and push all the detailed information about digital drives to the magnetic-tape data storage article, leaving behind a brief summary (and a link to that detailed article). After pushing analog audio to audio tape and analog video to videotape, are there any other kinds of tapes that fall through the cracks between those 3 articles? (analog tapes other than audio or video? digital tapes other than "computer tapes" ?) In any case, I suggest leaving this "tape drive" article as an overview article that summarizes and links to those detail articles, and also covering any other kinds of tapes. --DavidCary (talk) 20:00, 16 November 2023 (UTC)