This application provides a hard disk format conversion method and apparatus, and a storage device, and belongs to the field of storage technologies. In this application, a storage format of a storage unit is converted from an SMR format to a PMR format. Because IOPS in the PMR format is higher than IOPS in the SMR format, IOPS in the storage unit can be increased after the storage format is converted. Alternatively, a storage format of a storage unit is converted from the PMR format to the SMR format. Because a storage capacity in the SMR format is higher than a storage capacity in the PMR format, a storage capacity of the storage unit can be increased after the storage format is converted.

An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a controller configured to control writing operations to a magnetic recording tape, and logic integrated with and/or executable by the controller for causing the controller to receive a plurality of records, store datasets associated with the plurality of records in a buffer memory, and write the datasets stored in the buffer memory to the magnetic recording tape in response to a predetermined number of datasets being stored in the buffer memory. For each of the datasets being written, an end longitudinal position indicative of a physical position where the dataset is physically written to the magnetic recording tape is determined. Moreover, for each determined end longitudinal position, the end longitudinal position and an identifier of the associated dataset are stored to a table of a dataset that is to be subsequently written to the magnetic recording tape.

A method for indexing a tape for unmounting from a tape drive is discussed. The method can determine that an update has been made to the tape since it was last mounted. The method can identify a tape head position with respect to the tape, the tape including a data partition and an index partition. The method can identify first position and a second position on the tape. The method can determine first distance, a length of tape between first position and tape head position. The method can determine second distance, a length of tape between first position and second position. The method can determine that first distance is less than second distance. The method can reposition the tape to a primary section and write the metadata index. The method can reposition tape to the second position write a data index beginning at the second position of the data partition.

A recording method includes: acquiring a video stream containing a picture that is independently decodable; recording the acquired video stream on a recording medium; storing, in memory, a value indicating a data size of a picture defined in a third GOP management table obtained by merging a first GOP management table with a second GOP management table; and converting the stored value into either a first value defined in the first GOP management table or a second value defined in the second GOP management table, and recording the converted value on the recording medium.

A magnetic tape drive for writing data to a magnetic tape that includes a first data band, a second data band, and a servo band that is positioned between the first data band and the second data band, each of the data bands including a plurality of wraps including a first wrap and a last wrap, includes a drive controller and a tape head. The drive controller defines at least a first partition and a second partition within the magnetic tape. The tape head is configured to write data to the first partition of the magnetic tape and subsequently write data to the second partition of the magnetic tape. The drive controller defines an end of the first partition to be directly after the last wrap of the first data band. The drive controller controls the tape head to write data to all of the plurality of wraps of the first data band.

A recording device includes a first derivation unit that derives relevance of positions between different virtual blocks on a recording medium, a second derivation unit that derives inter-data relevance representing a possibility that plural items of data to be recorded on the recording medium are read out in parallel, a third derivation unit that uses a difference between the relevance of the positions and the inter-data relevance to derive a block for recording each of the plural items of data, and a control unit that performs control of recording the plural items of data on the recording medium according to the block derived by the third derivation unit for each of the plural items of data.

A recording and reproducing device includes: a reading unit that reads production information from a recording medium of a magnetic tape cartridge, the magnetic tape cartridge including a magnetic tape, and the recording medium other than the magnetic tape and on which the production information is recorded, the production information being information regarding the magnetic tape obtained in a production process of the magnetic tape cartridge; and a control unit that performs, as an initialization process of the magnetic tape cartridge, control of recording the production information on the magnetic tape and invalidating the production information in the recording medium.

A magnetic disk device includes a plurality of magnetic heads, a storage unit that stores a table storing, for each of the magnetic heads, a track skew value obtained by adding a head shared value and a head unique value, and a control unit that reads out the track skew value corresponding to one of the magnetic heads to be operated from the table and performs seek control.

A magnetic recording medium according to the present technology is a tape-shaped magnetic recording medium including: a base material; and a magnetic layer, the tape-shaped magnetic recording medium being long in a longitudinal direction and short in a width direction, in which the magnetic layer includes a data band long in the longitudinal direction and a servo band long in the longitudinal direction, a data signal being written to the data band, a servo signal being written to the servo band, the degree of perpendicular orientation of the magnetic layer being 65% or more, a full width at half maximum of an isolated waveform in a reproduced waveform of the data signal is 185 nm or less, a thickness of the magnetic layer is 90 nm or less, and a thickness of the base material is 4.2 μm or less.

Example systems, data storage devices, and methods to provide data protection during concurrent operations for multiple actuator data storage devices are described. The data storage device includes a plurality of actuators configured to actuate a plurality of heads over different subsets of a plurality of disk surfaces. Responsive to receiving a write command for one of the actuators, the coupling state with at least one other of the actuators is determined and execution of write commands is inhibited if the coupling state indicates a possible coupling event. The inhibit of the write commands in the presence of coupling events may prevent off-track writes and protect data.