Magnetic tape Data storage

Magnetic type is another type of removable medium. A tape is less expensive than an optical or magnetic disk, and the tape holds more data. The device that performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive.Tape drives and disk drives have similar transfer rates but random access to a tape is much slower than a disk seek.

Where are tapes used ?
- Tapes are commonly used to store backup copies of disk data.
- They are also used in large supercomputer centers to hold the enormous volumes of data.

Auto-loaders and tape libraries are frequently used to automate cartridge handling.
When storing large amounts of data, tape can be substantially less expensive than disk or other data storage options. Tape storage has always been used with large computer systems. The surface area of a tape is usually much larger than the surface area of disk.
A robotic tape changer is used for large tape installations. It lowers the overall cost of a data storage. A disk resident file that will not be needed for a while can be archived to tape, where the cost per megabyte is substantially lower; if the file is needed in the future, the computer can stage it back into disk storage for active use. A robotic tape library is sometimes called near-line storage, since it is between the high performance of on-line magnetic disks and the low cost of off-line tapes sitting on shelves in a storage room.