Patent ID: 7287715

Claim:
A magnetic tape cartridge, comprising: a reel disposed inside a main case for housing a magnetic tape in a wounded state; and an identification indicator formed on an outer surface of the main case for identifying type information peculiar to the cartridge including tape characteristics and a tape standard of the magnetic tape on a tape drive side, wherein the identification indicator is in a stripe shape having a grain printed portion and a mirror surface portion arranged alternately toward a loading direction of the magnetic cartridge onto the tape drive, and an indicator format defined by combination of the grain printed portion and the mirror surface portion is set in conformity with the type information, and when loading operation of the magnetic tape cartridge onto the tape drive is conducted, the indicator format of the identification indicator on the magnetic tape cartridge, which is displaced and moved in the loading direction inside the tape drive, is read by an optical reader mounted on the tape drive side, so that the type information on the magnetic tape cartridge can be obtained on the tape drive side.