The apparatus includes a suitable enclosure, housing a tray (10) to receive and hold a high-memory card (15) which may be formed of a recordable medium, or alternatively has inserted therein or placed thereon a magnetic or optical recordable medium on which data is recorded in the form of linear magnetic or optical recorded tracks (20). A linear head (25) array can be caused to scan the card by a head array scanning motor driving a head array transportation wire (32). To precisely position the card with reference to the track positions or to move the card from one track of a track group to the next, the card tray may be moved orthogonaly stepped at right angles to the direction of travel of the linear head array assembly by a drive motor operating a lead screw (61) and card tray leadscrew interface (62).