Patent ID: 6779080
Filing Date: 2004-08-17
Classification: G06F,G11B

Abstract:
A method of operating a read/write drive to conduct read/write operations upon removable, serially accessible, data storage media so as to render the media write-once-read-many to a hierarchically superior host, the method comprising the following operations performed by the read/write drive:receiving one or more write requests from the host, each write request being accompanied by corresponding write data; establishing a target write location on a data storage medium; responsive to each write request, performing operations to store the write data so as to preserve any previously stored data, the operations comprising: referencing a write append limiter sequentially identifying a location on the data storage medium before which data is not permitted to be altered; if the target write location occurs before the write append limiter, generating an error message; if the target write location occurs at a location other than before the write append limiter, storing the write data upon the data storage medium beginning at the target write location, and determining whether an end of the write data exceeds the write append limiter by more than a write allowance index, and only if so, advancing the write append limiter to position the write append limiter to one of: at a write location, or between adjacent write locations.