Tape damage detection

An apparatus, comprising:

• a magnetic head having at least two servo readers;
• and
• a controller in communication with the servo readers, the controller being configured to detect a sudden change in a width of a magnetic recording tape based on a differential position value derived from relatively more current servo readback data and a second differential position value derived from relatively older servo readback data,
• wherein the sudden change in width is detected within a single continuous read operation and/or single continuous write operation.

A computer program product for detecting tape damage, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a controller to cause the controller to perform a method comprising:

• calculating, by the controller, a differential position value based on readback signals from at least two servo readers of a magnetic head reading servo tracks of a magnetic recording tape;
• comparing, by the controller, the differential position value to a previously-calculated differential position value;
• and
• performing, by the controller, an action in response to determining that the difference between the differential position value and the previously-calculated differential position value is in a predefined range,
• wherein the differential position value is an average of differential position values for a set of samples, wherein the previously-calculated differential position value is an average of previously-calculated differential position values for a set of previously-obtained samples.