When talking about computing, a tape drive refers to the deck compatible with magnetic cassette tapes used for storing quantities of logical data. They have a number of very specific uses - primarily large, regular data backup and storage - and in these applications, they are by far the best hardware for the job.

In a very similar way to how an old audio tape recorder works, a tape drive records a modulated stream of data onto the surface of the tape, which has a layer of ferromagnetic substrate that retains its magnetic state once polarized with the field created by the drive head. To put it more simply, when the read-write head of the tape is sent a "pulse" of data, the tape surface is slightly magnetized and "remembers" the strength of the pulse. When reading the tape back again, the strength of the field can be measured, which allows the head to translate the pulse back into data.

Tape drive technology is actually very old. The very first electromagnetic storage was done on immense reels of steel wire and tape that worked in very much the same way as modern tapes do. They weighed tons and stored very little recorded audio or data compared to a modern tape. They were also prone to becoming derailed, whereupon hundreds of feet of wire or tape would fly across a room, causing serious injury to anyone in its path. Fortunately, technology has improved somewhat since then and modern tape drives represent the fastest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to quickly record and or retrieve large quantities of data.

Being a continuous ribbon, the recording surface area available to a tape is much higher than that of a removable magnetic disk, and consequently, a single tape of roughly similar dimensions to a few stacked disks can store many times more data than those similarly sized disks. Again, due to the linear nature of tape drive technology, they are very suitable for making single, continuous writes or reads of large quantities of data; perfect for backups, with excellent data throughput. Compared to DVDs, which are suited to storing and making smaller, incremental backups only, tape drive solutions represent a much faster option, requiring less user intervention. Tapes do not experience the disastrous results consequences of allowing a speck of dust to settle on the recording medium, which can often result in a radial scratch that renders the entire disk useless in less than the space of a second, unlike floppy, LS120/240 (superfloppy), or ZIP drive disks.

Watch the VXA Technology virtual tour.