On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 20:54:46 -0400, William Donzelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Remember that with old tapes, often they can be read ONE more time, >then the game is up. It gets much worse the older the mag tape !!! Don't even unroll or attempt to mount a mag tape on anyone's tape drive if the tape's content is valuable. Instead have it "read" by specialists. I'd contact the Computer Museum first and follow the expert's advice. In 1964 mag tapes had an iron oxide layer on a mylar backing, perhaps 200 or as much as 556 bpi. Around 1975 a tape librarian demonstated to the CIO the value of "permanent tape retention". Few of the 10+ year old tapes were still readable. Typically when you removed them from the case (tape's container) a cloud of "rust" fell out. Andreas F. Geissbuehler AFG Consultants Inc. http://www.afgc-inc.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
