Patent ID: 6865043

Claim:
A recording system for a magnetic tape drive, said magnetic tape drive having at least one motor for moving a magnetic tape longitudinally; said magnetic tape drive having at least one read/write head for reading from and for writing to said magnetic tape while said magnetic tape is moved longitudinally by said at least one motor; said magnetic tape drive for receiving data to be written to said magnetic tape, said recording system comprising: at least one recording channel receiving said data to be written to said magnetic tape, said data in the form of transactions, and said at least one recording channel for operating said at least one read/write head for writing transactions to said magnetic tape; and a controller operating said at least one motor, and said at least one recording channel, said controller: detects a pattern of synchronizing events for writing said transactions to said magnetic tape as synchronized transactions; writes said synchronized transactions to said magnetic tape as written synchronized transactions, in the form of data sets, each data set having a data set information table; in the event one of said written synchronized transactions partially fills a data set, rewrites said partially filled data set in a succeeding data set, appends a subsequent said synchronized transaction in said succeeding data set as an appended synchronized transaction; and establishes a moving access point for said succeeding data set in said data set information table of said succeeding data set, said moving access point identifying said appended synchronized transaction, thereby skipping said rewritten synchronized transaction.