A tape drive is provided, which executes an optimum writing method even when overwrite is intervened between mixed read and write operations. When an overwrite command is received while executing the mixed operations, which writes to a predetermined tape position, when a tape position to overwrite on is encountered before the append-written data ending position of the tape (tape EOD), the overwritten tape position is regarded as the append-written data ending position of the tape (tape EOD) to update the tape EOD by the overwritten tape position. When a tape position to overwrite is encountered after the append-written data ending position of the tape (tape EOD), the overwritten tape position is updated by the append-written data ending position of a non-volatile memory (non-volatile EOD). The updating the EODs enhances the performance of the mixed read and write operations even when an overwrite command is intervening.