18 Feb
1999
18 Feb
'99
3:49 p.m.
At 09:07 PM 2/18/99 -0000, you wrote:
Isn't it just a standard DC-100 cartridge?
I'm not sure about the length but I've been using DC-2000s with no
problems. Old DEC tapes work great. In fact, the HP tapes are sorry! The
media flakes off of them very easily. Back them up as soon as you get
them!!! I tested 14 of them a few months ago and some died on the first
use, only one lasted more than three days and it died after about two weeks.
AFAIK, those are still being
What about the cartridges?
They can be found. There were some on E-bay recently. They turn up at
hamfest and surplus outlets. made. Of course, it's undoubtedly cheaper to get
them at a hamfest.
Unfortunately some HP systems (and some other vendors' systems as well)
require preformatted tapes. I hope the HP-85 doesn't need that.
I'm told that the HP 9133 (or was it 9144?) does.
Yes the 9144 and 9145 and 7946 all require preformatted DC-600 tapes.
And they're formatted all the way across the tape not just across the data
track so there's no way to format them without a special machine.
No the small tapes used in the 9825s, HP 85s, etc are blank and can be
formatted in the computer/calculator. Most use the command "Initialize" to
format the tapes.
Joe