9 Nov
2022
9 Nov
'22
6:52 p.m.
I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible historic value. Who can I pay to
get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
Warner
10 Nov
10 Nov
7:45 a.m.
On 11/9/22 20:52, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible historic
value. Who can I pay to
get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
Very difficult. We were a big user of Exabyte drives for
processing of physics experimental data. Our experience is
Exabyte drives had a lifetime of 1-2 years, no matter if
they were powered on, in heavy use or just parked on a
shelf. Back in the day, we found outfits that would
refurbish and test the drives for a modest cost, but I
assume they are not doing that now.
I do have an 8200 drive here, but I have great doubts that
it would work.
Jon
8:18 a.m.
Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 11/9/22 20:52, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
I have an Exabyte drive too, actually two drives in the one case.
One of the drives has not worked at all while it has been in my care
(the door was pulled off by someone attempting to extract the tape
from it when it failed in service before I got it).
A few years back I dug it out and found the other drive didn't work
either. However, it was a fairly simple power supply fault and I
was able to revive it enough to read some old tapes successfully.
I'm not sure I'd trust it to try to read anything that might be of
historic value though.
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.
I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible
historic value. Who can I pay to
get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
Very difficult. We were a big user of Exabyte drives for
processing of physics experimental data. Our experience is
Exabyte drives had a lifetime of 1-2 years, no matter if
they were powered on, in heavy use or just parked on a
shelf. Back in the day, we found outfits that would
refurbish and test the drives for a modest cost, but I
assume they are not doing that now.
I do have an 8200 drive here, but I have great doubts that
it would work.
Jon
8:55 a.m.
I don't know where Jon is, but I'm located on the US Pacific Northwest.
I have a couple of Exabyte drives and used my EXB-8700 about two months
ago to recover some customer data, so I know it works--and is clean.
If no one comes forth, I'd be willing to help out.
--Chuck
10:18 a.m.
Indeed. I have a Cybernetics 8505 in the shed, I was just looking at it
and wondering if it still worked.
What tends to go on these things? Rubber in there, capstains, etc?
C
On 11/10/2022 10:45 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 11/9/22 20:52, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible
historic value. Who can I
pay to
get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
Very difficult. We were a big user of Exabyte drives for processing of
physics experimental data. Our experience is Exabyte drives had a
lifetime of 1-2 years, no matter if they were powered on, in heavy use
or just parked on a shelf. Back in the day, we found outfits that would
refurbish and test the drives for a modest cost, but I assume they are
not doing that now.
I do have an 8200 drive here, but I have great doubts that it would work.
Jon
11:09 a.m.
On 11/10/22 12:18, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
Indeed. I have a Cybernetics 8505 in the shed, I was
just
looking at it and wondering if it still worked.
What tends to go on these things? Rubber in there,
capstains, etc?
Clearly, rubber rollers go bad, but there seems to be
something else going on, because when ours went bad, they
would start blinking LEDs without any movement of stuff
inside. So, some of the chips failed internal self-test.
Or, that's how I remember it.
Jon
11:50 a.m.
As a reminder, since I’ve seen at least 3 different drives mentioned in this thread. Not
all drives can read all tapes.
Given the age, I’d recommend someone that does this professionally (and I believe that
includes Chuck). I’ve worked with computer tapes for something like 40 years, and I try
to avoid 8mm tapes, though I prefer them to 4mm tapes.
Zane
On Nov 10, 2022, at 10:18 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Indeed. I have a Cybernetics 8505 in the shed, I was just looking at it and wondering if
it still worked.
What tends to go on these things? Rubber in there, capstains, etc?
C
On 11/10/2022 10:45 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
> On 11/9/22 20:52, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
>> I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible historic value. Who can I pay to
>> get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
>>
> Very difficult. We were a big user of Exabyte drives for processing of physics
experimental data. Our experience is Exabyte drives had a lifetime of 1-2 years, no
matter if they were powered on, in heavy use or just parked on a shelf. Back in the day,
we found outfits that would refurbish and test the drives for a modest cost, but I assume
they are not doing that now.
> I do have an 8200 drive here, but I have great doubts that it would work.
> Jon
12:15 p.m.
Zane, what is the problem you’ve experienced with 8MM tapes? I have a lot of home video
8MM that I’ve not converted to Dvd yet and was wondering if the issue was related to tape
deterioration or more to the drive mechanism.
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 10, 2022, at 11:50, Zane Healy via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
As a reminder, since I’ve seen at least 3 different drives mentioned in this thread.
Not all drives can read all tapes.
Given the age, I’d recommend someone that does this professionally (and I believe that
includes Chuck). I’ve worked with computer tapes for something like 40 years, and I try
to avoid 8mm tapes, though I prefer them to 4mm tapes.
Zane
On Nov 10, 2022, at 10:18 AM, Chris Zach via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Indeed. I have a Cybernetics 8505 in the shed, I was just looking at it and wondering if
it still worked.
What tends to go on these things? Rubber in there, capstains, etc?
C
> On 11/10/2022 10:45 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
> On 11/9/22 20:52, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
>> I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible historic value. Who can I pay to
>> get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
>>
> Very difficult. We were a big user of Exabyte drives for processing of physics
experimental data. Our experience is Exabyte drives had a lifetime of 1-2 years, no
matter if they were powered on, in heavy use or just parked on a shelf. Back in the day,
we found outfits that would refurbish and test the drives for a modest cost, but I assume
they are not doing that now.
> I do have an 8200 drive here, but I have great doubts that it would work.
> Jon
12:22 p.m.
I've got this Exabyte 8900 drive currently listed for sale:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403940369941
Unfortunately I could not find a tape to do at least rudimentary testing.
If you're interested, I'll give you a much better price in a direct sale.
Contact me privately and I can provide more information about the drive and
try to test it.
Sellam
On Thu, Nov 10, 2022 at 11:09 AM Jon Elson via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 11/10/22 12:18, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
Indeed. I have a Cybernetics 8505 in the shed, I
was just
looking at it and wondering if it still worked.
What tends to go on these things? Rubber in there,
capstains, etc?
Clearly, rubber rollers go bad, but there seems to be
something else going on, because when ours went bad, they
would start blinking LEDs without any movement of stuff
inside. So, some of the chips failed internal self-test.
Or, that's how I remember it.
Jon
1:26 p.m.
On 11/10/22 12:22, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote:
I've got this Exabyte 8900 drive currently listed
for sale:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403940369941
Unfortunately I could not find a tape to do at least rudimentary testing.
If you're interested, I'll give you a much better price in a direct sale.
Contact me privately and I can provide more information about the drive and
try to test it.
The 8900 uses the Mammoth AME tapes, but can read earlier tapes. I like
the 8700 (and 8505XL) for the regular oxide tapes. I don't think I've
ever received so much as an inquiry regarding the Mammoth metal tapes.
That was near the end of the 8mm media (1999) when other formats, such
as DLT and DDS were gobbling up the market. IIRC that the AME tapes
were stupid-pricey.
--Chuck
1:34 p.m.
A quick look at that auction site shows that the Exabyte Mammoth tapes
are now stupid cheap--some being offered in lots. There are also
several 8900 drives for sale (even OBO).
I think that LTO pretty much sounded the death knell for 8mm tape. No
comparison in capacity or speed.
--Chuck
2:36 p.m.
On 11/10/2022 4:26 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
The 8900 uses the Mammoth AME tapes, but can read
earlier tapes. I like
the 8700 (and 8505XL) for the regular oxide tapes. I don't think I've
ever received so much as an inquiry regarding the Mammoth metal tapes.
That was near the end of the 8mm media (1999) when other formats, such
as DLT and DDS were gobbling up the market. IIRC that the AME tapes
were stupid-pricey.
Yeah, we had Exabyte Mammoth tape drives for a while in changers at
AAAS. They had a serious reliability problem which was not good for
backup tapes, so we went to IBM LTO and the IBM tape changers. Those
worked well.
The Contemporary Cybernetics 8505's were pretty much bulletproof, I
should get it inside and fire it up to see if anything works. Had
hardware accelerated compression and was pretty quick for the mid 1990's
technology.
--Chuck
2:55 p.m.
On Wed, Nov 9, 2022 at 7:52 PM Warner Losh <imp(a)bsdimp.com> wrote:
I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible historic
value. Who can I pay
to get them recovered that has the best chance of success?
These are 4GB tapes, I believe. Made in 1992 or 1994 give or take. They are
in Sun dump format. i need the bits at least, but decoding from dump format
wouldn't be bad. they are level 0 backups.
And I'm really hoping to find a good service to do due to the age... I'd
rather not do it on my own, even though it's easy enough to connect the
equipment...
Warner
530
days inactive
530
days old
12 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
Chris Zach -
Chuck Guzis -
Jon Elson -
Peter Coghlan -
Sellam Abraham -
Warner Losh -
Wayne S -
Zane Healy