I've come across three original QIC tapes for the IBM 5100. DC300 I think, original IBM labels.
They are in fair condition (the tape material itself seems fine, they are all on their reels), but the "rubbers" used to actually actuate the reels is degraded. I came across an article once on how to restore those (I think it involved gluing the rubber band directly to the ends of the media?) The three tapes are labeled as follows: 5721-XM3 THE IBM 5100 PROBLEM SOLVER LIBRARY TAPE PART NO. 1608361 E.C. NO 829643 DATE 7/29/76 (this one is in a form fitted sealed ziploc-like bag, which I haven't opened; the early magazine ads for the 5100 reference this solver library -- I assume it is a mix of BASIC and APL) 5721-EAB THE IBM 5100 BASIC COMPUTER AIDED INSTRUCTION TAPE PART NO. 1608376 E.C. NO 829482 DATE 11/13/75 VERSION 1 MOD 0 FEAT 9021 PROGRAM NO. 5721-EAB CARTRIDGE 3 OF 3 (what does FEAT mean? and sadly, I don't have cartridge 1 or 2, but I assume this is probably some BASIC code that runs some kind of tutorial about the system) TAPE PART NO. 1608705 E.C. NO 829637 DATE 1/10/77 DIAGNOSTIC CARTRIDGE. DO NOT ALTER THE CONTENTS OF THIS TAPE. (I believe when accessing the built in DCP, it has options to load and run additional diagnostics that would be contained on this tape -- I think "IMF" stuff, so it would be in native PALM machine code) Anyone interested in a restoration or any contacts to folks who have worked on QIC tape before? I have a working IBM 5100 (with working internal tape and external 5106), but I absolutely haven't tried to insert or use these tapes, and I have 0 experience in trying to extract data from raw media. I don't mind shipping them off to an expert - such as anyone who maybe can copy the data content to a new tape? (which I know is probably some specialized equipment - I probably can't self fund that, but I am interested to know what the options here might be) -Steve / v*
