Advantages and Limitations of Magnetic Tapes




Advantages and Limitations of Magnetic Tapes

1. Storage capacity of a magnetic tape storage is virtually unlimited because as many tapes as required can be used for storing large data sets.

2. With low cost of tape reels and cartridges and high data recording densities, cost per bit of storage is very low of magnetic tapes. An additional cost benefit comes from the fact that we can erase data on a tape and reuse it many times. In-spite-of recent advantages in many other storage technologies, tapes remain an unrivalled storage because no other technology offers high capacity advantage at such low cost.

3. Tape reels and cartridges are easy to handle and store because they are compact and light in weight. They enable storage of huge amount of data in a small storage space.

4. Magnetic tape reels and cartridges are easily portable because of their compact size and lightweight. They are often used for transferring data and programs from one computer to another that are not linked together directly.

Limitations

1. Magnetic tapes are not suitable for storage of those data we need to access randomly because of their sequential access nature.

2. We must store them in dust-free environment because specks of dust can cause tape-reading errors. The environment must also have controlled temperature and humidity levels to prevent the tape ribbon from twisting due to warping.

3. We must label magnetic tapes properly and logically to remember what data is on which tape, and to prevent erasure of useful data by mistake.