19 Jul
2010
19 Jul
'10
6:40 p.m.
On 7/19/10 3:22 PM, Richard wrote:
This is similar to the 9/7-track reading device: there
are no takeup
and feeder reels as they are normally present in a working drive. The
tape is not pulled over the read head under tension. With tapes that
you had to recondition via baking, you don't want to put them under
tension anyway. The tapes are lightly pulled over the read head. I
don't know the exact mechanics of the transport, but I believe it is
electronically controlled and not manual. However, it exerts far less
physical stress on the tape as I understand it.
I have been using conventional drives for 1/2" tape recovery.
John Bordyuik's web site at one point described the system he uses,
which has a modified M4 data tranport fitted with an IBM 3480 16 track
magnetorestrictive head and modified read electronics. In either case
the tape transport is conventional.
3M 1/4" data cartridges need the band to move the tape. There is no
conventional way to move the tape without this.