They had no hard disk drive, and loaded software from magnetic tape cartridges.

The most popular systems for large computer users these days are magnetic tape cartridges similar to those used in video-cassette recorders.

Travan is an 8 mm magnetic tape cartridge design developed by the 3M company, used for the storage of data in computer backups and mass storage.

Computer operation is controlled by an internally stored program which is loaded from a magnetic tape cartridge at the launch facility (LF).

Starting in the late-1960s IBM's lab in Boulder, Colorado began development of a low-cost mass storage system based on magnetic tape cartridges.

Although there were other magnetic tape cartridge systems, the Compact Cassette became dominant as a result of Philips's decision to license the format free of charge.

It will offer its $25,000 optical drive along with optical tape packages that fit the standard 3480 magnetic tape cartridges used with I.B.M. computers.

Unlike a videocassette recorder, which uses removable magnetic tape cartridges, a TiVo DVR stores television programs on an internal hard drive that can only be removed by disassembling the device.

IBM offered three Problem-Solver Libraries, contained in magnetic tape cartridges, with the IBM 5100 to provide more than 1000 interactive routines applicable to mathematical problems, statistical techniques and financial analyses.

Modern computer systems have a hierarchy of different types of storage, ranging from the fastest and most risky - D-RAM, or dynamic random-access memory chips - to the slowest and safest, magnetic tape cartridges.

The data is stored on a $28.95 magnetic tape cartridge the size of a postage stamp, powered by a tape drive that is based on the Sony Corporation's NT Digital Microtape technology - a smaller variation on Sony's Digital Audio Tape consumer electronics products.