Storage device data overlay tracking and prevention

A computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• one or more processing circuits communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to:
• receive user input comprising a value indicating activation for an overlay tracking flag for a track of a direct access storage device (DASD);
• update, within metadata of data stored within the DASD, the overlay tracking flag to the value indicating tracking activation;
• detect, by the DASD, a write request for the track, wherein the write request includes a second datum to replace a first datum of the track;
• determine, by the DASD, in response to the overlay tracking flag having the value indicating tracking activation, a first access method used to transmit the write request;
• determining, by the DASD referencing a protocol of the first access method, a first identifier of a first application which transmitted the write request;
• recording, within the metadata, the first datum, the second datum, and the first identifier for the first application;
• and
• overlaying the first datum on the track with the second datum in response to recording the first datum, the second datum, and the first identifier for the first application.

A computer program product for managing data overlay in a direct access storage device (DASD) using metadata of data stored within the DASD, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by a computer processor of a computer, cause the computer to:

• receive user input comprising a value indicating activation for an overlay tracking flag for the DASD;
• update, within the metadata, the overlay tracking flag to the value indicating tracking activation;
• detect, by the DASD, a write request for the track, wherein the write request includes a second datum to replace a first datum of the track;
• determine, by the DASD, in response to the overlay tracking flag having the value indicating tracking activation, a first access method used to transmit the write request;
• determining, by the DASD referencing a protocol of the first access method, a first identifier of a first application which transmitted the write request;
• recording, within the metadata, the first datum, the second datum, and the first identifier for the first application;
• and
• overlaying the first datum on the track with the second datum in response to recording the first datum, the second datum, and the first identifier for the first application.