[Info-vax] DLT Tape degaussing services

[Rich Jordan]

On Mar 19, 2:02 pm, "John Smith \(not the one @ HP\)"
<a... at nonymous.com> wrote:
> "David Mathog" <mat... at caltech.edu> wrote in message
>
> news:gpopc4$8gi$1 at naig.caltech.edu...
>
> > > I'm certainly
> >> willing to try a smaller unit (missed one on ebay yesterday that was
> >> for reel to reel audio tapes) but expect it won't be overly
> >> effective.  So far no luck at locating a nearby service.
>
> > See what's available at the local Universities and research labs.  NMR
> > machines and cyclotrons have enormous magnets.  How far are you from Fermi
> > lab?
>
> > Regards,
>
> > David Mathog
>
> How about the nearest Navy Yard when they degauss their ships? Put the tapes
> in plastic bags and hang them over the side as the ship is degaussed. Ought
> to work.

Heh.  Unfortunately I doubt the Navy does anything like that here in
Ill Annoy.  I actually did look around to see if there was a wrecking
yard that used a crane with an electromagnet but couldn't find one
(and if I did I doubt they'd be willing, but who knows).

I knew someone at Fermi but he left.  Without that contact I'd hate to
bother them for something like this.  Fun thought though...

Maybe I should build a railgun... if it didn't erase them it could
launch them pretty hard; more fun than a sledgehammer for data
destruction.

I did some more digging and there seems to be a breakpoint at about
3500-3700 Gauss where the sellers start claiming the ability to erase
DLT cartridges (and around 4350 Gauss for SDLT-2 and higher.  I read
reports that the Radio Shack high power unit was not able to do the
job on DLTTape IV 20GB cartridges (ironically the same situation;
someone trying to make tapes used on a real DLT drive usable on a
VS80).

Found one service that may end up costing about $4.00/cartridge by the
time shipping there and back is considered, and nothing local so far.
I can get new tapes on Ebay for very close to that price... I think
we're going to end up doing the crush kill destroy thing on the
tapes.  A shame, but its not worth the time and effort to get them
wiped.

Rich