[Info-vax] Modern VMS (e.g. V8.4) tape installation?

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:

(snip)
> Tapes in general are pretty good. I read off a number of DECtapes 
> created in the mid 70s this christmas, with no problems.
> 1/2" tapes also usually give me no problems, even at similar age. 
> Normally 1600 bpi, but some also at 800 bpi. (That's what you had back 
> then...)

The 800bpi tapes were always a problem, new or not.

They are very sensitive to head alignment, and can fail easily
even just moving to a different drive on the same day.

The coding on 1600bpi and 6250bpi tapes is much less sensitive
to head alignment, and so they cause much fewer problems,
new or old.

-- glen