longitudinal track method
The longitudinal track method is a linear recording method in which the magnetic tape is fed past the read/write heads at a relatively high speed of several meters per second.
In the longitudinal track method, the data tracks lie parallel to the magnetic tape. The recording and playback direction changes depending on the tape movement. For optimum tape utilization and to increase data transfer rate and storage capacity, the longitudinal track method uses a fixed magnetic head as read/write head and several hundred parallel tracks. For example, the track width in Ultrium drives is only 10 µm.
The process is used in DLT drives, LTO drives, MLR drives, SLR drives and QIC drives.