TK50 cleaning and unloading issues, new thought:

[Warner Losh]

On Sat, May 23, 2020, 7:10 PM Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:

> On 5/23/20 5:58 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
> > Tapes are shedding that much
>
> yup, they are garbage.
>
> high probability that you will make the first pass across the tape and it
> will stick
> when it reverses direction for the second pass
>
> the only TK drive I will even use is the TZ30 1/2 height because it is
> easy to get to the tape
> path to clean
>


The TK50 was compact, easy to use and convenient. Well, back in the 80s
when I wrangled them in and out of the MicroVAX II running VMS. But, that
was only when they were behaving. When they weren't they inspired the
desire to drink heavily and or break things. Oh, and they were slow. And
picky. And that's when they were new... I can't imagine trusting them
today... sounds like they aged better than I feared the might...

Warner

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