Depends on the condition of the tapes and the value of the data. I am probably one of the few still happily using TK50 and TK70 drives for backup and booting some 11/73 and 11/83 systems; they're not BAD per se you just need to understand why they work. What is it? Vax stuff? Pdp11? In terms of how to make them work, the secret is that the two capstans in them have bearings which are now dry and either need to be replaced or re-oiled. The capstans are put on their shafts by screws which are factory tuned, but you can mark the bolts, unscrew them counting the turns, then put each bolt back on the same number of turns to re-align them. Aside from that don't use tapes that look like goo, clean the head when switching to/from known good tapes to new (suspect) ones and live a clean life... C On 3/4/2025 8:49 AM, dbrock--- via cctalk wrote: