TK50/TK70 Info

I hope to start backing up my MicroVAX 3800 soon via the TK70. Sounds like 8mm is more unreliable than the TK70, and I don't have but one magneto-optical disk. Are there any precautions I need to take before sticking a tape in the drive? Pinch rollers that might be gooey? I assume the TK70 drive is backwards compatible with TK50 tapes? Lastly, I've got some tapes that I couldn't find much info on. Here are the labels: ER206200-00 REV G 1.03 P4000 DOWNLINE VMS SOFTWARE 09-29-89 (C) 1988 EMULEX ER2062014-00 REV A P4000 LAT-TCP/IP VER 2.00 05/14/90 TK50 (VMS LOAD) (C) 1990 EMULEX ER2062014-00 REV 01 P4000 LAT-TCP/IP VER 2.00B2 05/1/90 TK50 (VMS LOAD) (C) 1990 EMULEX ER2062014-00 REV 00 P4000 LAT-TCP/IP SOFTWARE 3-22-90 TK50 (VMS LOAD) (C) 1990 EMULEX Are any of those worth keeping? Any tips on getting those tapes online using my VAX? I know there are utilities for the PDP-8 and PDP-11 world, but being thrown into VAX and VMS so quickly, it may take me a bit to catch up. Any recommendations on reading material? I also have a tape for VAX Occam 2 from INMOS. I know what that is, as I have a 64-node Transputer array. It'd be nice to get that going at some point for fun. Thanks, Kyle