Method and apparatus for writing successive streams of data on a magnetic medium by writing a cancel mark indicating the cancellation of a previously-written file mark

摘要

A writing method suitable for practice with magnetic tape cassettes in particular. After writing a first stream of file data on the tape in the form of a series of file data blocks, there is created one or more, preferably two, file mark blocks immediately after the last file data block. Then, in writing a second stream of file data on a blank tape length left after the first file data stream, at least one file mark cancel mark block is created after the file mark blocks, instead of the conventional practice of overwriting the first block of the second file data stream on the second file mark block following the first file data stream. Then the second stream of file data is written in the form of another series of file data blocks after the cancel mark block. The first and second streams of file data can be subsequently read one after the other.