Patent ID: 8767331

Claim:
A tape drive system, comprising: a data cartridge having a tape media, the tape media comprising N data bands separated by servo bands, wherein N is greater than 1; a read/write/erase head assembly having a servo read element and, at most, N/2 erase element(s); a tape transport mechanism, to transport the tape media from the data cartridge to the read/write/erase head assembly; and servo and control elements configured for controlling the read/write/erase head assembly and providing an erase current through the erase element(s) as the tape media is passed by the read/write/erase head assembly to erase substantially all the data on the data bands while substantially preserving servo information in the servo bands, with, at most, N/2data bands being substantially fully erased per pass of the tape media from one end of the tape media to the other, thus requiring at least two passes of the tape media to substantially fully erase all N data bands.