5 Aug
2006
5 Aug
'06
7:42 p.m.
I've recently inherited a ComputerVision CADDStation (basically a
rebadged Sun3 machine) and a pile of tapes of software for it from Scott
Quinn. Before I work on getting the machine up and running again, I
have two tasks I'd like to take care of, in no particular order:
1. Repairing the CADDStation's tape drive.
2. Archiving the tapes in a useful format.
For taking care of #1, as far as I can tell the drive works except for a
rubber wheel that's turned to this lovely gooey tar. I don't
necessarily _need_ to fix the drive, since I have a compatible
replacement, but I'd like to keep the system as original as possible so
if it's possible to fix without too much work I'd like to do that. The
tape drive in question is an Archive 5945S-1. Anyone have any idea how
feasible it is to find a replacement wheel for this drive? Any good
places to look that you'd recommend?
Regarding #2, I don't have an incredible amount of experience dealing
with tape, so I'm looking for suggestions for how best to archive these
tapes without losing any important information. I have a Linux machine
to which I can connect my spare tape drive in order to do the archiving,
it's just a matter of determining what's necessary on the software end
to make an accurate copy. The tapes all appear to be QIC-24, and
probably contain data in whatever format SunOS uses (since the
CADDStation basically runs a rebranded version of SunOS.)
Thanks for any suggestions!
Josh