Measuring amplitudes of written tracks in a tape drive to determine errors in read and write elements in the tape drive

A controller deployed in a tape drive having a tape head having a read element and a write element to perform read and write operations with respect to a tape medium, comprising:

• a controller component;
• and
• a memory;
• wherein the controller component performs operations, the operations comprising:
• writing, by the write element, a data pattern and erase pattern to the tape medium to provide the data pattern and the erase pattern on sides of the data pattern;
• positioning the read element to measure amplitudes at offsets in the data pattern stored in the memory;
• processing the offsets and the amplitudes at the offsets to estimate a maximum amplitude read while the read element is estimated to be positioned entirely in the data pattern and estimate an offset at which the read element reads a fixed percentage of the maximum amplitude;
• estimating a width of the read element based on the estimated offset;
• and
• outputting the estimated width of the read element to determine whether the estimated width of the read element is acceptable.

A method for controlling a tape head having a read element and a write element in a tape drive to perform read and write operations with respect to a tape medium, comprising:

• writing, by the write element, a data pattern and erase pattern to the tape medium to provide the data pattern and the erase pattern on sides of the data pattern;
• positioning the read element to measure amplitudes at offsets in the data pattern;
• processing the offsets and the amplitudes at the offsets to estimate a maximum amplitude read while the read element is estimated to be positioned entirely in the data pattern and estimate an offset at which the read element reads a fixed percentage of the maximum amplitude;
• estimating a width of the read element based on the estimated offset;
• and
• outputting the estimated width of the read element to determine whether the estimated width of the read element is acceptable.