Magnetic storage media having partitions without guard wraps

An apparatus, comprising:

• a magnetic head;
• a drive mechanism for passing a magnetic recording tape over the magnetic head;
• and
• a controller electrically coupled to the magnetic head, the controller being configured to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
• partitioning a magnetic recording tape having a plurality of data bands, the partitioning comprising:
• assigning no more than two wraps of a first of the data bands to an index partition, the two wraps being at an end of wraps of the first data band, and
• assigning all other wraps of the first data band to a data partition,
• wherein no guard wraps are assigned between the index partition and the data partition,
• wherein all wraps on the magnetic recording tape, other than the wraps assigned to the index partition, are assigned to the data partition.

A method comprising:

• receiving a command to unmount a file system used with a magnetic recording tape having no guard wraps between an index partition and a data partition on a magnetic recording tape;
• determining whether data in the data partition has changed;
• in response to determining that the data has changed, writing an index in the data partition;
• locating a beginning of partition of the index partition;
• and
• writing the index in the index partition in a direction away from the beginning of partition,
• wherein no more than one wrap is assigned to the index partition.