The Magnetic Tapes is the Type of Secondary Storage device and is used for taking backup of data. They contain some magnetic fields and are used to convert data into sequential form and load into the tape. They contain a ribbon which is coated with the magnetic material only on one side. There is ahead which accesses and reads the data which is recorded on the tape. While accessing/reading data it is possible to move along to different locations either forward. On backward to get the required information. The only hitch is one cannot directly land on a location, but has to wind forward on rewind as the case may be to get to the required data. Tape drives are used for inserting and winding/new winding to tapes mag. Tapes are prone to get damaged easily due to human errors. A very large amount of data can be stored, in the tap.

Advantages:

• The cheapest form of storage per megabyte of storage.
• Can store large amounts of data in terabytes per tape cartridge.
• It can be used to do the back up overnight or over the weekend.

Disadvantages:

• Slow due to serial access technique
• Need a special piece of equipment to record and read the data.
• The data may get corrupted if the tape is placed near a strong magnetic field.