Cassette tape data recovery

Thanks Rik - actually I don't have the tape yet & so don't know who the tape manufacturer is. The tape is effectively a boot tape & will have been supplied by the equipment manufacturer, so it's possible the original manufacturer may not be clear. I'm hoping it's not as long as a std C60 or C90 (given the purpose), shorter is definitely better :) That's a good point about the gloves thx, as I'll need to check inside the housing as the machine appears to have been outside for some time. I'm imagining that old cassette tapes would need to be 'baked' for some time prior to recovery, as for 9 track tapes - hoping to find out if anyone has done this! -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rik Bos Sent: Monday, 4 May 2015 9:26 PM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: RE: Cassette tape data recovery from opportunities by If you're talking about compact cassettes, like C60/C90 or the data variant like the Philips LGH 6003, they hold remarkable good. I've some original HP cassettes for the HP 9830A which are from the early seventies, all of them hold their data and are working perfect. The only thing is the cushion which presses the tape to the head, sometimes they used foam for those. You should replace them . If you have a normal cassette recorder (old one) you could remove the head and spool (slow speed) the tape some times to see if it's spools smoothly. If it doesn't spool smoothly, open op the tape and replace the housing, that should do the trick. Copying will another problem because you will need a drive with the same head configuration, you could try to use an audio card to digitize the tape and store it for later use. NB. Use gloves when you handle the tape, to prevent dead spots on the tape. -Rik