On 12/30/22 17:37, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > THere were certain tape manufacturers and plastic/metal clip marks and wear > patters that were typical of certain types of drives reading certain types > of tapes. Maybe high resolution photos of a few used tapes will reveal > clues. A tape ejected 30 times will have certain patterns of wear in > certain places. I have lots of different types of tapes, I am happy to > compare your used tape photos with anything I might have that would be > similar. > Not a guaranteed solution, but it might help narrow down candidate systems. > Bill > Heck, I'd just unspool a bit of the stuff, drop some Kyread on it and have a gander with the old microscope. That can at least tell me how many tracks are involved.
But being a quarter-inch cartridge leaves a lot of ground open. For instance, what if these tapes are Iotaamat-formatted? A regular QIC drive will have nothing to do with them. There were other manufacturers (Cipher 525) comes to mind that do not use standard formatting techniques. On some of the later 8mm Travan carts, the tape is will-o'-the-wisp thin. FWIW, Chuck
