[Info-vax] RMS internals?

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Bob Koehler wrote:
> In article <08SdnQzp4dLrQx3XnZ2dnUVZ_o2dnZ2d at giganews.com>, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> writes:
>> The only format that is close to being universal is fixed length 80 byte 
>> records.  Many systems can block and/or deblock those fixed length records.
> 
>    Once upon a time I was told that the "universal" format was 800 BPI
>    9-tracks written in unblocked 80 byte EBCDIC records.
> 
>    Fortunately, when we got our second 11/780 some nice DECcie gave us
>    a program to translate to/from EBCDIC while moving files to/from
>    tape.
> 
>    But the only 9-tracks drives know I can find are out of commision, in
>    the basement of a friend who would like to find parts for them.
> 

I wish him luck.  But what is he going to do with them if he does find 
the parts needed to fix them?  I believe that technology to be back in 
the stone age somewhere!  Maybe you can still buy reel-to-reel tapes
but you may have to go to an antique dealer to find them.

I think that the moral may be to copy that old data to new media and 
technology every few years.  Failing that you may have pay a museum a 
small fortune for the privilege of using their exhibits to recover your 
data.

Are reel-to-reel nine track tape drives still in use anywhere?  Seven 
track?  How about TK50 drives and cartridges?

Old data may not be as valuable as you might think.  A few years ago I 
was working for a company that was upgrading to new hardware.  There was 
NO WAY we could have copied all the old data during the long weekend.

We decided that anyone who hadn't bought anything for the last three 
years was no longer a customer.  Pruning these inactive customers 
reduced the database to a size we could move during a three day weekend.
We kept an offline backup of the former customers that were pruned from 
the live data base.  We kept those backup tapes for about three years 
and nobody *ever* asked asked for any of that old data.