18 Dec
2006
18 Dec
'06
5:52 p.m.
Joachim Thiemann wrote:
Over the weekend, I got out two old DC-600 tape drives
out of storage
- a Wangtek and an Archive. Only the Wangtek has a SCSI-to-QIC24
interface board, but I think I can use that on either drive (the board
may in fact be originally from the Archive drive anyways).
Anyways, after a quick visual inspection and wiping some dust off, I
did try it with an old DC-600 tape cartridge - one that I knew was not
important. It loaded OK and I started an attempt to image the tape to
a file.
About 1/4 into the tape something started vibrating, quickly
escalating and before I could do anything, the tape stopped. Result:
rubber goo on the plastic roller that drives the DC-600 cartridge
drive belt, some on the tape itself, and the tape shows deformation
(wavy) on the top half. I had to toss it.
Another case of rubber rot... I haven't had it happen to me (except rubber
feet, etc... most recently on a Sun type 5 keyboard... half the left
foot had
turned to goo... the one thing I've found that acclerates this (and damages
some plastics too), is certain vinyl? cabling... this type 5 probably had a
keyboard cable wrapped and in contact with it's foot. I've had some plastic
on computer cases/etc similarly damaged by prolonged contact with cables.
If you are only looking to read... find a newer drive.... I use a Wantek
525Meg QIC drive... it reads DC6150 tapes... and I'm pretty sure DC600
too.
I have a bunch of QIC drives around... I'm going to have to start examining
the rubber rollers.....
I can imagine the old 45 meg ? drive for my Sun-2 is probably toast...
-- Curt