A servo system and method position a head laterally with respect to magnetic tape longitudinal defined servo bands arranged in a longitudinally shifted pattern for identification, and separated by data tracks. A servo controller responds to a loss of lateral position, sensing an estimated longitudinal position of the magnetic tape. If the estimated longitudinal position is within a predetermined distance of an end of the tape, the servo controller operates a drive to continuously move the tape away from the sensed end. The servo controller senses a home lateral position sensor to determine whether a compound actuator is within a predetermined distance of the edge of the magnetic tape. If so, it operates the coarse actuator portion of the compound actuator to move laterally away from the edge of the magnetic tape; else, to move toward the edge. The servo controller senses a dual servo sensor to detect any two of the defined servo bands; and, upon sensing any two of the defined servo bands, detects the longitudinal shift to identify which ones of the two defined servo bands have been detected.