System and method for securing drive access to data storage media based on medium identifiers

A method for securing access to data media in a particular partition of a partitioned data library, said method comprising:

• listing at least one unique identifier of media that data transfer elements in said partition are allowed to access in memory storage of said data transfer elements in said partition;
• reading a unique identifier from cartridge memory of a selected medium with a data transfer element receiving said selected medium;
• checking said memory storage of said data transfer element receiving said selected medium for said unique identifier of said selected medium;
• and
• accessing said selected medium in response to said unique identifier of said selected medium being present in said memory storage of said data transfer element receiving said selected medium.

A partitioned data library comprising:

• data storage media, each medium of said media having cartridge memory;
• a plurality of storage element slots, each of said slots adapted to store one medium of said data storage media, at least one set of at least one of said slots assigned to one partition of a plurality of library partitions;
• and
• a plurality of data transfer elements that are adapted to receive said media, read said medium cartridge memory and transfer data to and from said media, each of at least one set of at least one of said data transfer elements assigned to one of said library partitions, wherein said cartridge memory of a selected medium is read by one of said data transfer elements receiving said selected medium and access to said media by said data transfer elements is restricted to selected media having at least one particular unique identifier stored in said medium cartridge memory.