Patent ID: 7920356

Claim:
A method for writing a plurality of servo bands on a magnetic tape comprising: moving said magnetic tape longitudinally relative to at least one servo write head, said at least one servo write head positioned to write a plurality of parallel longitudinal servo bands, wherein said plurality of servo bands comprise odd servo bands and even servo bands, each of said odd servo bands lie between said each of said even servo bands; operating said at least one servo write head to write said plurality of parallel longitudinal servo bands on said magnetic tape such that each of said plurality of servo bands comprise a plurality of frames, wherein each frame comprises a plurality of bursts of transition stripes, each burst having a first transition stripe; said first transition stripe of each burst of each said odd servo band is longitudinally shifted from said first transition stripe of each burst of each said even servo band by a substantially equal distance, D, such that servo information of said odd servo bands is interleaved with servo information from said even servo bands.