Qué (quién) es tape drives - definición
![[[Compact Cassette]]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Kaseta magnetofonowa ubt.jpeg?width=200 "[[Compact Cassette]]")
![Small open reel of [[9-track tape]]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Tapesticker.jpg?width=200 "Small open reel of [[9-track tape]]")
![A [[VHS]] helical scan head drum. Helical and transverse scans made it possible to increase the data bandwidth to the necessary point for recording video on tapes, and not just audio.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/VHS head drum 2.jpg?width=200 "A [[VHS]] helical scan head drum. Helical and transverse scans made it possible to increase the data bandwidth to the necessary point for recording video on tapes, and not just audio.")
Wikipedia
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic-tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability.
A tape drive provides sequential access storage, unlike a hard disk drive, which provides direct access storage. A disk drive can move to any position on the disk in a few milliseconds, but a tape drive must physically wind tape between reels to read any one particular piece of data. As a result, tape drives have very large average access times. However, tape drives can stream data very quickly off a tape when the required position has been reached. For example, as of 2017 Linear Tape-Open (LTO) supports continuous data transfer rates of up to 360 MB/s, a rate comparable to hard disk drives.
