31 Oct
2005
31 Oct
'05
5:43 a.m.
Vassilis Prevelakis wrote:
"Joe R." <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com>
wrote:
You know, given the sticking aspect, does running old tapes through some
gadget tht's completely submerged in some cleansing liquid make sense?
It presumably wouldn't be that hard to take the mechanical side of an
old tape drive and stick it in some form of bath, with belt drive to a
motor outside of the bath to do a slow pass.
Presumably the magnetic data would survive happily. The only issue is
properly drying the tape out afterwards before use.
Of course it depends on the cause of the stickyness. If it's total decay
of some aspect of the tape's construction then it'll probably destroy
the tape during cleaning. If it's due to some surface-level problem
(out-gassing or external contaminants, say) then maybe the cleaning's
useful and will result in a tape that can at least be read long enough
to get the data off...
Idle thoughts for the morning anyway! :)
cheers
Jules
FWIW I tested about a dozen tapes a few years ago
and about 4 failed
on the first pass, about that many failed in the next few days and
only one lasted a week.
The tapes stick unto themselves, so it is a good idea to unwind them slowly
rather than perform a retention (CTAPE) which is a violent and abusive
treatment for a tape that is ready to fall apart.