System and method for detecting media and transport degradation during multichannel recording

摘要

A method and system for determining degradation of a tape drive and tape includes generating a count signal indicative of the number of data blocks read from tape having more than a predetermined threshold of data bytes in error. A degradation signal indicative of tape drive and tape degradation is generated if the ratio of corrected blocks versus the total number of blocks read from the tape is above a predetermined ratio. The degradation signal is indicative of tape drive degradation if the ratio of blocks having more than a predetermined number of error data bytes along a single track versus total number of blocks is above a predetermined ratio, and is indicative of tape degradation if the ratio of blocks having more than a predetermined number of tracks for a given data byte being in error versus total number of blocks read is above a predetermined ratio.