On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 11:39 PM, Mark J. Blair <n...@nf6x.net> wrote:
> If I'm not mistaken, TK70 drive can read but not write TK50 tapes. > > I have very limited experience with this family of drives so far, but what > little I have is not good. Pictures: > > https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/617511461452013568 > > https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/617519989721923584 > > Maybe my tapes need baking or something to keep the oxide from shedding? I > haven't tried it yet. Unfortunately, my failure mode results in a > labor-intensive fiddly manual tape extraction job followed by manually > rewinding tapes into cartridges designed to make it very difficult to do > anything manually, so I haven't found the motivation to resume > experimenting yet. If and when I resume experimenting, I might look into > making some sort of gizmo to let me unlock the two cartridge spool locks > and then manually rewind the tape, without needing to disassemble the > cartridge with springs popping out all over the place. Maybe something 3D > printed the depresses the latches, with a crank that engages the spool? > Yikes...I hope mine turns out a bit more reliable than that. As it turns out, I bought a spare TK70 a while back at a hamfest and rediscovered it the other day, so if all else fails, I guess I have that to turn to. Is your 730 booting VMS yet? Kyle
