Odd Magnetic Media question

At 02:03 PM 3/30/00 -0800, Zane H. Healy wrote: Tapes seem to fail in a variety of ways. I'm not an expert but these are my personal experiences and my working theorys, buyer beware! 1) They fail to stay magnetized. I'm guessing due to heat changing the magnetic properties of the tape. 2) The oxide flakes off. It seems the adhesive between the mylar and the oxide "dries out" or some such and it just peels off. Usually leaves behind a clear spot. 3) They stretch. Mostly this seemed to be a problem in an old Kennedy drive I used that really sucked (vacuum that is!) and I don't think it did as good a job as it could with the tape tension control. 4) They evaporate. Now I've never ever seen a partially evaporated tape, however I have on more than one occasion been absolutely positive I put some tapes in a box in the closet, only to come back some time later and to have them completely gone. Then again it could just be a "senior moment" :-) --Chuck