Storing meta-information on tape recording systems

A method for recovering information from a tape storage medium, the method comprising:

• reading a most recently written quantity of base meta-information from a data partition of a tape;
• responsive to determining that the data partition includes subsequent differentiated meta-information that was written to the data partition after the most recently written quantity of base meta-information, updating the base meta-information based at least in part, on the subsequent differentiated meta-information to construct a recovered index of meta-information;
• and
• appending the recovered index of meta-information to an index partition of the tape.

A storage system, the storage system comprising one or more storage media, the one or more storage media including a tape, the storage system operating to:

• read a most recently written quantity of base meta-information from a data partition of a tape;
• determine that the data partition includes subsequent differentiated meta-information that was written to the data partition after the most recently written quantity of base meta-information, and in response, update the base meta-information based at least in part, on the subsequent differentiated meta-information to construct a recovered index of meta-information;
• and
• append the recovered index of meta-information to an index partition of the tape.