A magnetic tape device, in which a magnetic tape is caused to run between a winding reel and a cartridge reel in a state where a tension is applied in a longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape and a maximum value of the tension is 0.50 N or more, and the magnetic tape after running in a state where the tension is applied is caused to be wound around the cartridge reel by applying a tension of 0.40 N or less in the longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape, and a curvature of the magnetic tape in the longitudinal direction is 4 mm/m or less.

A magnetic tape device, in which a magnetic tape is caused to run between a winding reel and a cartridge reel in a state where a tension is applied in a longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape and a maximum value of the tension is 0.50 N or more, and the magnetic tape after running in a state where the tension is applied is caused to be wound around the cartridge reel by applying a tension of 0.40 N or less in the longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape, and an edge weave amount of a tape edge on at least one side of the magnetic tape is 1.5 μm or less.

The magnetic tape cartridge includes a magnetic tape, and a cartridge reel, in which, in the magnetic tape, a minimum winding deviation occurrence load measured after the magnetic tape is rewound around the cartridge reel by applying a tension of 0.20 N in a longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape is 200 N or less.

Provided are a magnetic tape comprising a magnetic layer containing a ferromagnetic powder and a binding agent on a non-magnetic support, in which the magnetic layer contains an oxide abrasive, an average particle diameter of the oxide abrasive obtained from a secondary ion image acquired by irradiating a surface of the magnetic layer with a focused ion beam is 0.04 μm to 0.08 μm, and an absolute value ΔN of a difference between a refractive index Nxy measured with respect to an in-plane direction of the magnetic layer and a refractive index Nz measured with respect to a thickness direction of the magnetic layer is 0.25 to 0.40, and a magnetic recording and reproducing device including the magnetic tape.

The magnetic recording medium includes: a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including ferromagnetic powder, in which a difference S.sub.after−S.sub.before between a spacing S.sub.after measured on a surface of the magnetic layer by optical interferometry after methyl-ethyl-ketone cleaning and a spacing S.sub.before measured on the surface of the magnetic layer by optical interferometry before methyl-ethyl-ketone cleaning is more than 0 nm and 15.0 nm or less, and the non-magnetic support is an aromatic polyamide support having a moisture absorption of 2.2% or less.

In a magnetic recording medium, a number distribution A of a plurality of bright regions, based on equivalent circle diameters thereof, in a binarized image of a secondary electron image obtained by imaging a surface of the magnetic layer by a scanning electron microscope at an acceleration voltage of 5 kV and a number distribution B of a plurality of dark regions, based on equivalent circle diameters thereof, in a binarized image of a secondary electron image obtained by imaging a surface of the magnetic layer by a scanning electron microscope at an acceleration voltage of 2 kV respectively satisfy a predetermined number distribution.

The magnetic recording medium includes: a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including ferromagnetic powder, in which a difference S.sub.after−S.sub.before between a spacing S.sub.after measured on a surface of the magnetic layer by optical interferometry after ethanol cleaning and a spacing S.sub.before measured on the surface of the magnetic layer by optical interferometry before ethanol cleaning is more than 0 nm and 6.0 nm or less, and the non-magnetic support is an aromatic polyester support having a moisture absorption of 0.3% or less.

The ε-iron oxide powder has an average particle size in a range of 5.0 to 16.0 nm and an uneven distribution of an M atom in a surface layer portion, in which the M atom is one or more kinds of atoms selected from the group consisting of an aluminum atom and an yttrium atom, and a content of the M atom with respect to 100 atom % of iron atoms is in a range of 4.0 to 9.5 atom %.

The magnetic recording and reproducing device includes a magnetic recording medium, a recording element, and a reproducing element. The recording element is an inductive recording element having a first magnetic pole which generates a magnetic field, and a second magnetic pole which is spaced apart from the first magnetic pole with a write gap interposed therebetween, a tip width of the first magnetic pole is substantially the same as a tip width of the second magnetic pole, and a reproducing element width of the reproducing element is 0.5 μm to 0.8 μm. The magnetic recording medium has a non-magnetic support, and a magnetic layer containing a ferromagnetic powder, and the number of recesses, which are present in a surface of the magnetic layer and have an equivalent circle diameter of 0.20 μm to 0.50 μm, is 10 to 500 per area of 40 μm×40 μm.

The magnetic tape includes a non-magnetic support, a magnetic layer that includes ferromagnetic powder having an average particle volume of 2,500 nm.sup.3 or less on one surface side of the non-magnetic support, and a back coating layer that includes non-magnetic powder on the other surface side of the non-magnetic support, in which the ferromagnetic powder is ferromagnetic powder selected from the group consisting of hexagonal ferrite powder and ε-iron oxide powder, and a ratio (PSD.sub.5μm-PSDmag/PSD.sub.10μm-PSDbc) of the magnetic layer and the back coating layer is in a range of 0.0050 to 0.20. A magnetic tape cartridge and a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus include the magnetic tape.