System and method for off-track write prevention and data recovery in multiple head optical tape drives

In an optical tape drive having optical heads for writing data in tracks on an optical tape, each track having an off-track threshold, a system and method are disclosed for off-track write prevention. Present multiple head designs in these tape devices include a rigid body housing and actuating structure. As a result, in the event of excessive external disturbances to the heads or excessive instantaneous lateral motion of the tape media, all heads move away from the center of their corresponding tracks and beyond the OT threshold limits. In such circumstances, servo off-track functionality normally invokes the buffering of data streaming to the heads and prevents the heads from processing and recording that streaming data on the tape media until all heads are moved back to within their OT threshold limits. The claimed invention provides an improved system and method for off-track write prevention and data recovery in an optical tape drive having multiple optical heads. This system overcomes performance limitations associated with excessive external disturbances to optical heads or excessive instantaneous tape lateral motion to provide greater data transfer rates overall and increased data capacity. The system includes multiple actuators, each actuator configured to control a position of associated optical heads. The system also includes a controller configured to determine a position of each of the optical heads relative to an associated track on the optical tape and to prevent, in response to an event causing an optical heads to have a position outside the off-track threshold of the associated track, only that optical head from writing data to the optical tape and to buffer associated data for that optical head for later processing.