Destructive Imaging of DECTAPE II Media

[Brent Hilpert]

On 2015-Jan-27, at 3:58 PM, Mike Stein wrote:

> I can't find it at the moment but somewhere I have a Burroughs digital cassette drive, capstan-less and capable of high-speed bidirectional seek. AFAIK it uses the standard half-track mono tape format, one track for data and the other for the clock.

That description fits the tape system used in the HP9830. The tape transport is actually a "DigiDeck" OEM'd by International Computer Products,  out of Dallas, Texas. The head is non-standard though, in that it R/Ws both half-tracks simultaneously.


> Don't know if it'd be useful and not sure if I want to part with it permanently, but keep it in mind if nothing else works out and you get desperate ;-)

I don't think it would be of any benefit to the OP's interest over what he already has to work with.