HP tape drive novel repair

Mike wrote... ---- I have a 7970E in a 7971A rack, which can take two 7970E drives. I elected to mount a 2109E and a 9895A underneath the 7970E. ---- Nice rig. You have one of the "newer" style racks which have a more (industry) standard post/mounting setup. I had one or two of those, but got rid of them in favor of standardizing on the older style racks which I had more of (02940-90306). Plus my dual 2100-based Access system is in the "correct" rack, which was the dual bay with the front "running board" (29404B). HP rack docs for the stuff I use insist on the cpu's and most other devices going in one rack and the tape drives in a separate rack. I'd suspect for power distribution reasons (each rack held 20A). The HP specs for 2000/Access systems (as factory delivered at the time of printing at least) called for rack1 to hold the 2 cpus, rack2 to hold the tape and 13037 (disc) subsystem box, and all disk drives to be installed in one drive per "low boy" rack (29425A) ie. racks3-10 for a maximum config. I have two of the 29425A racks, one is actively in use (7906) and the other is waiting to be restored. I hope to use that one for this build but it will need a new formica top which probably won't be cheap to obtain. Not sure if I have all the skins/doors for it so I may have to just use the one already restored/running. So this system build will have 3 racks, two 2940's (one for two cpus, one for tape & 13037), and one of the 29425A's with a 7906. ---- I've also worked on a 7970E in the slanted "low boy" cabinet. There's a lot of wasted space in there. ---- Very cool. I've always wanted one of those, just cause they look so neat. But like Marc, I have never seen one in the wild. J