Patent ID: 8611038

Claim:
A tape drive system, comprising: a magnetic head having at least one servo sensor for sensing a lateral position of the magnetic head with respect to at least one defined servo track of a longitudinal tape; a tape motion controller configured to operate at least one drive motor to move the longitudinal tape longitudinally past the magnetic head; a fine actuator configured to translate the magnetic head laterally with respect to the longitudinal tape; a skew actuator configured to translate the magnetic head rotationally with respect to the longitudinal tape; a coarse actuator configured to translate the fine actuator laterally with respect to the longitudinal tape; and a control configured to: sense a first servo sensor of the at least one servo sensor; determine position error between the magnetic head and a desired position related to the at least one defined servo track; provide signals to operate the fine actuator to translate the magnetic head laterally in a manner to reduce the determined position error; determine skew error between an angle of the magnetic head relative to tape motion and a desired angle relative to the at least one defined servo track; provide signals to operate the skew actuator to translate the magnetic head rotationally in a manner to reduce the determined skew error; determine when the position error is greater than a position error threshold; determine when the skew error is greater than a skew error threshold; transition from a write state to a monitor state when the determined position error is greater than a threshold error value; and transition the fine actuator from a normal compensation mode to a high energy compensation mode when the position error is greater than the position error threshold for a first predetermined period and the skew error is greater than the skew error threshold for a second predetermined period.