File index, metadata storage, and file system management for magnetic tape
AssigneeInternational Business Machiness Corporation
InventorsArnon Amir, David A. Pease, Rainer Richter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a method for writing data to a magnetic recording tape includes writing a plurality of files to a first partition of a magnetic recording tape using a tape drive, and writing an index to a second partition of the magnetic recording tape using the tape drive, the index including information about locations of data of the plurality of files in the first partition of the magnetic recording tape.
Claims25
A method for writing data to a magnetic recording tape, the method comprising:
- writing a plurality of files to a first partition of a magnetic recording tape using a tape drive;
- and
- writing an index to a second partition of the magnetic recording tape using the tape drive, the index including information about locations of data of the plurality of files in the first partition of the magnetic recording tape.
A computer program product for writing data to a magnetic recording tape, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
- computer readable program code configured to write a plurality of files to a first partition of a magnetic recording tape using a tape drive;
- and
- computer readable program code configured to write an index to a second partition of the magnetic recording tape using the tape drive, the index including information about locations of data of the plurality of files in the first partition of the magnetic recording tape.
A method, comprising:
- storing file content in a first data partition of a magnetic recording tape using a tape drive;
- storing an index in a second data partition of the magnetic recording tape using the tape drive, the index comprising file content indexing information;
- and
- retrieving a desired portion of file content stored in the first data partition by providing direct access to arbitrary locations of the file content using the indexing information.
A method for formatting a tape, comprising:
- formatting a first partition and a second partition on a tape using a tape drive;
- and
- writing an initial index to the second partition.
A method, comprising:
- storing file content in a first data partition of a magnetic recording tape using a tape drive;
- storing an index in a second data partition of the magnetic recording tape using the tape drive, the index comprising file content indexing information;
- and
- updating the file content stored in the first data partition by appending new content to the file content and updating the index stored in the second data partition by writing an updated version of the index.
A method for reading data from a magnetic recording tape having at least two partitions, the method comprising:
- reading an index stored on a first partition of a magnetic recording tape using a tape drive;
- finding locations of a plurality of file portions on the magnetic recording tape using the index;
- and
- reading the file portions from a second partition of the magnetic tape using the tape drive.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.