Patent ID: 8635419

Claim:
A data archiving system comprising: one or more removable drives operable to store archival data with Write Once, Read Many (WORM) control, each removable drive comprising a data cartridge and memory comprising: memory blocks operable for storing archival data; one or more headers, each header storing one or more items of metadata associated with the memory blocks; and one or more gaps, each gap comprising: a rewritable block of data between one of headers and one of the memory blocks; and one or more addresses of the memory blocks; and a drive bay comprising a plurality of drive ports, each drive port including: a connector which mates with the data cartridge to communicate with the memory therein; and a processor in communication with one or more application servers and configured to receive write requests associated with the archival data from the application servers, the processor operable to store the archival data to one or more of the memory blocks in the memory without overwriting existing data therein.