11 Sep
2013
11 Sep
'13
11:41 p.m.
On Wed, 11 Sep 2013, Ian King wrote:
Do you have previously written tapes that you plan to recover with those
drives? The most common problem I used to run into with DAT and DDS2
drives in particular (other than dirt) was tape path alignment issues.
This made recovering existing tapes a challenge since those tapes would
have been written while the drive was misaligned and once the alignment
was corrected, the tapes couldn't be read again without intentionally
misadjusting the drive. You'll need an oscilloscope and a properly written
test tape to really be able to much of anything with the alignment if you
plan to do it yourself.
Hi folks,
I have three external DDS2 DAT drives for a Unisys machine I've been
restoring, and none of them work. The original owner of the machine
warned me they were not reliable, but I've actually found them quite reliably
non-functioning.
I performed the prerequisite Google search for information on repairing
these drives, and instead I got results about services who repair them.
I'm all for that, but of course which one to pick? So here I am, tapping into
the Group Wisdom.
Anyone have direct experience with such a firm in the United States?
Those to avoid are every bit as useful as those you recommend.
Not working: the system reports 'not ready' despite issuing the
appropriate commands. I have cleaned the drive multiple times, tried
numerous scratch tapes, tried several believed-good tapes with content -
'not ready'. The former owner of the system reports they had similar,
progressive problems near the end of the machine's service life.
Sometimes lights flash, other times not, even with multiple attempts
using the same tape.