Writing data to a tape
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsNeil Thomas Hutchon, Jonathan Peter Buckingham
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for writing data to a tape is disclosed. A plurality of data segments are written onto a tape simultaneously. Any data segments written to the tape that needs to be rewritten are identified. Each data segment that needs to be re-written is accumulated. The accumulated data segments are written to tape when a full set of data segments have been accumulated. The re-written data segments each have a first field in a header that designates itself and a second field in the header that designates a second re-written data segment.
Claims15
A method for writing data to a tape, comprising:
- writing data from a dataset onto the tape by simultaneously writing a plurality of data segments N onto the tape in N data tracks;
- determining if one or more of the plurality of data segments N written to the tape needs to be rewritten;
- accumulating each of the plurality of data segments for a rewrite when a data segment needs to be rewritten;
- when N data segments have been accumulated, simultaneously rewriting the N data segments to the tape and then deleting the rewritten data segments from the accumulated list, wherein each data segment in the N data segments rewritten to the tape has a first field in a header that designates itself and a second field in the header that designates a second re-written data segment;
- when the end of the dataset is reached, writing any remaining accumulated data segments to the tape, wherein each data segment rewritten to the tape has a first field in a header that designates itself and a second field in the header that designates a second rewritten data segment.
A tape drive, comprising:
- at least one tape read/write head, wherein the at least one read/write head is configured to write a plurality of data segments N onto a tape simultaneously;
- logic coupled to the read/write head and configured to determine when one or more of the plurality of data segments written to the tape needs to be rewritten;
- the logic configured to accumulate data segments that need to be rewritten, wherein the accumulated data segments are written to tape when N data segments have been accumulated, wherein each data segment rewritten to the tape has a first field in a header that designates itself and a second field in the header that designates a second re-written data segment.
A tape drive, comprising:
- at least one tape read/write head, wherein the at least one read/write head is configured to write a plurality of data segments N onto a tape simultaneously;
- means for determining when one or more of the plurality of data segments written to the tape needs to be rewritten;
- means for accumulating data segments that need to be rewritten, wherein the accumulated data segments are written to tape when a N data segments have been accumulated, wherein each data segment rewritten to the tape has a first field in a header that designates itself and a second field in the header that designates a second re-written data segment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.