Brian Chase wrote:
On Wed, 1 Jan
2003, Marvin Johnston wrote:
Wonderful, thanks much for the information!!! Due to financial concerns,
I am selling my IBM 5100 (sigh) on Ebay. Most of the tapes were DC300A,
and the extra ones I have are the DC600s. I am in the process of
duplicating the tapes, 1) so I can keep a set of the Patch and Games
tapes in case I can ever afford another one :), and 2) to make sure the
tapes are readable. Thanks again!
If at all possible, it would be wise to store
file images of these tapes
on CDs or some other more modern storage format. I'm not sure exactly
how one would go about doing this, but maybe someone on the list can
offer some suggestions.
-brian.
Jerome Fine replies:
I don't know if this information will help, but the DC600A tapes
that I used to use (I probably now have quite a few I can make
available) were placed in a TK25 tape drive made by DEC for
a PDP-11. I used then about 10 years ago to make backups
under RT-11. From what I learned over the years, they may
have used a QIC-24 (or something like that - my memory is
hazy) format. But I also suspect that the DEC tape drive
might have switched the BOT with the EOT - although that
might have been with the DC300 tapes that I used with an
11/23 system that had is own device driver.
In any case, making a backup copy of the data to be placed
on a TK25 tape drive using a DC600A media might not be
a great idea as opposed to making a copy of the hard drive
IF that possibility exists. There are always going to be trade
offs between using what seems to be a good suggestion as
opposed to what is even practical, let alone useful.
With regard to what a PDP-11 would place on a DC600A
tape, it would be far more useful to make a copy of the hard
drive.
However, since I don't have ANY experience at all with the
IBM 5100, my observations (based on how a PDP-11 would
use the information) are likely to be completely impractical.
However, just thought I might point out the experience I
have had from the DEC point of view.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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