Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire rec
7-inch reel of ¼-inch-wide audio recording tape, typical of consumer use in the 1950s–70s
A VHS helical scan head drum. Helical and transverse scans made it possible to increase the data bandwidth to the necessary point for recording video on tapes, and not just audio.
Small open reel of 9-track tape
Linear Tape-Open, also known as the LTO Ultrium format, is a magnetic tape data storage technology used for backup, data archiving, and data transfer. It was originally developed in the late 1990s as
Magnetic tape
…tape begins to degrade after 10–20 years and, therefore, is not an ideal medium for long-term archival storage. The exception is data tape formats like LTO which are specifically designed for long-term archiving. Information in magnetic tapes is often recorded in tracks, which are narrow, separate areas…
A 400 GB LTO-3 cartridge by Sony
LTO-2 cartridge with the top shell removed, showing the internal components. Top right corner: tape access gate. Bottom left corner: write-protect-tab. Bottom right corner: cartridge memory chip
LTO-3 cartridge with the top shell removed, showing the internal components. Top right corner: write-protect-tab. Bottom left corner: cartridge memory chip. Bottom: tape access gate.