18 Aug
2005
18 Aug
'05
11:46 a.m.
I think that Al Kossow has lots of experience reading old DECtapes
based on
the good DecTape archives that he has on bitsavers. Al, can you share
a
little of your experience and insight with the rest of us? How well do
these
things hold up 30-35 years later when they are actually being read and
written to on a TU56?
--
very, very well.
The tapes have redundant track encoding, they are pretty low density,
and the formulation doesn't stick.
I've read tapes from the mid 60's w/o a problem.
I have a bit-level reader with custom read amps coming to deal with
the couple of marginal tapes and LINCtapes that I have.
--
1/2" tapes, on the other hand, are a total PITA.