Tape drive emulation by removable disk drive and media formatted therefor

A method of storing computer data on a rotating magnetic disk, the method comprising:

• using a tape drive emulator connected between a disk drive and a host computer to interface with the host computer using a set of commands applicable to a tape drive,
• communicating data from the tape drive emulator to and from the disk drive whereby the data is transduced relative to the disk in a sector format,
• generating with the tape drive emulator a set of data, the set of data being recorded in a predetermined plural number of sectors on the disk, the set of data having error correction bytes generated over the set, the error correction bytes being sufficient to recover a sector of the disk not readable by the disk drive.

A method of storing computer data on a rotating magnetic disk, the method comprising:

• using a tape drive emulator connected between a disk drive and a host computer to interface with the host computer using a set of commands applicable to a tape drive,
• communicating data from the tape drive emulator to and from the disk drive whereby the data is transduced relative to the disk in a sector format,
• recovering with the tape drive emulator a set of data, the set of data being recorded in a predetermined plural number of sectors on the disk, the set of data having error correction bytes generated over the set, the error correction bytes being sufficient to recover a sector of the disk not readable by the disk drive.

A rotating information storage media comprising:

• a disk formatted with sectors, a set of data being recorded over a predetermined plural number of the sectors, the set of data having error correction bytes generated over the set of data, the error correction bytes being sufficient to recover a sector of the disk not readable by a disk drive.

A tape drive emulator connected between a disk drive and a host computer which interfaces with said host computer using a set of commands applicable to a tape drive, the tape drive emulator generating a set of data for recordation in a predetermined plural number of sectors on a rotating information storage media, the set of data having error correction bytes generated over the set of data, the error correction bytes being sufficient to recover a sector of a disk not readable by the disk drive.

A method of formatting a rotating disk upon which information is recorded, the method comprising recording on the disk a format type identification, the format type identification being interpretable to indicate that the disk is compatible with transducing a multi-sectored set of data, the set of data being recordable or having been recorded in a predetermined plural number of sectors on the disk, the set of data having set error correction bytes generated over the set, the error correction bytes being sufficient to recover a sector of the disk not readable by a disk drive.

A rotating information storage media having:

• a first layer format whereby the media is formatted with sectors;
• a format type identification type stored therein indicating that the media has a second layer format;
• wherein according to the second layer format a multi-sectored set of data is recordable or has been recorded in a predetermined plural number of sectors on a disk, the set of data having error correction bytes generated over the set, the error correction bytes being sufficient to recover a sector of the disk not readable by the disk drive.