Tape drive apparatus, recording and/or reproducing method, and recording medium

摘要

A tape cassette of this invention is equipped with a memory capable of accommodating management information. Where the tape cassette is used, a MIC mode switch is written to a predetermined area on the magnetic tape held in the cassette. That item of information specifies whether or not the use of the management information held in the memory is mandatory upon write or read operations to or from the magnetic tape. A check is made on the consistency between the MIC mode switch read from the magnetic tape on the one hand and a result of access to the memory on the other hand. If an inconsistency is detected, that is interpreted as something fraudulent having been committed on the tape cassette. In such a case, read and write operations on the illegitimate cassette are restricted. This improves security of a tape drive system running the tape cassette.