How tracks work ?

How tracks work ?

I've searched a bit and found a clear explanation here is a copy/past:

There are actually up to three tracks on a card.
Track 1 was designed for airline use. It contains your name and usually your account number. This is the track that is used when the ATM greets you by name. There are some glitches in how things are ordered so occasionally you do get "Greetings Bill Smith Dr." but such is life. This track is also used with the new airline auto check in (PSA, American, etc)
Track 3 is the "OFF-LINE" ATM track. It contains security information as your daily limit, limit left, last access, account number, and expiration date. (And usually anything I describe in track 2). The ATM itself could have the ability to rewrite this track to update information.
Track 2 is the main operational track for online use. The first thing on track to is the PRIMARY ACCOUNT NUMBER (PAN). This is pretty standard for all cards, though no guarantee.
Example of Track1: B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^050510100000000001203191805191000000
Example of Track2: 4888603170607238=05051011203191805191

Usually only track1 and track2 are needed to exploit the ATM card.
Let us examine track1.
Take the Credit Card account number from Track 2 in this example it
is:4888603170607238 and add the letter "B" in the front of the number like
this B4888603170607238 then add the cardholder name YOU want to show on the
card B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^(Last name first/First Name)next add the
expiry date and service code (expiry date is YYMM in this case 0505,and in
this case the 3 digit service code is 101 so add 0505101 ,
B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^0505101
No add 10 zero's after service code:
B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^05051010000000000
Next add the remaining numbers from Track2 (after the service code)
B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^050510100000000001203191805191
and then add six zero's (6) zero's
B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^050510100000000001203191805191000000 this is
your Track 1
Track 1:B4888603170607238^Head/Potato^050510100000000001203191805191000000

REMEMEBER THIS IS ONLY FOR VISA AND MASTER CARD(16digits) , AMEX HAS 14
DIGITS, this doesn't work for Amex

FORMAT FOR TRACK2
CC NUMBER: YYMM (SERVICE CODE)(PVV)/(CVV)
Here is the Fleet's credit track2 dump:
4305500092327108=040110110000426
we see card number, an expiration date, 1011 - service code, 0000 is the place for pvn (but it is absent!), and at least 426 is the cvv (do not mix with cvv2)
Now let's take a look on MBNA's track2 dump:
4264294318344118=04021010000044500000
here we see the same - no pvn's and other verification information -just a cvv.

As clearly shown above it is possible to generate track1 from track2 using the method shown above. However track2 gen software automates the process.