Exabyte Corporation

Gerald C Kauffman

Timothy C Hughes

Fadi Y Abou-Jaoude

Don Heins

Patricia Slovacek

A helical drive system (10) reads tracks (18) on a storage medium (12), including tracks which appear as distorted tracks. Each track (18) comprises a plurality of blocks of data, with each block having unique block-identifying information. A read head (16C) traverses predetermined original azimuthal paths (P0) across the storage medium (12) for reading the blocks recorded along each of the original azimuthal paths (P0). A controller (50) uses the block-identifying information to determine whether any blocks expected to be read during the traversal of the original azimuthal paths (P0) were not read. If expected blocks were not read, the controller (50) rewinds or otherwise reverses the direction of travel of the storage medium (12); sends a signal to a tape transport drive (81) to slow the speed of the medium (12); and, directs that the medium (12) be re-read at a slower tape reread speed. During the slow re-read attempt, the read head (16C) traverses modified azimuthal paths (P1, P2, P3 , . . . P10) which are separated from one another by a distance less than the track pitch, thereby providing opportunities to read blocks which would not otherwise be read due to distortion of the tracks (18).

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Longmont, CO, United States of America

Gerald C Kauffman