Abstract: A method and system for managing the transfer of data from one tape to another. The system uses an operating system to control a plurality of tape drives and a tape manager. The system is configured to enable a user to create a stacked tape, unstack a previously stacked tape, and/or consolidate a previously stacked tape. When a stack is created, data is copied from one or more input tapes to an output tape in any desired format using American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard labeling conventions. When a user requests that data be unstacked, virtual tape volume (VTVs) on one or more input tapes are located and copied to respective opened output tapes. When data is consolidated, VTVs on one or more input tapes are copied to a single output tape. When data consolidation or stack creation is complete, a directory is written to the output tape.