APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING READ/WRITE GAP FAILURE AND SWITCHING TO AN ALTERNATIVE READ/WRITE GAP

摘要

A magnetic storage device (10) for storing and retrieving data from a magnetic medium such as a magnetic tape (22). The magnetic storage device (10) includes a first write gap (14), a first read gap (16) and at least one of a second write gap (18) and a second read gap (20) with each gap operatively associated with the magnetic medium. A controller (30) is coupled to each gap (14, 16, 18, 20). The controller (30) senses an error from a gap (16, 20) and stores an error flag.