[Info-vax] TK50 - this is annoying...

[Paul Sture]

In article <slrnk70kc6.60i.brad at coyote.home.earwicker>,
 brad <brad at coyote.home.earwicker> wrote:

> On 2012-10-06, Lee Gleason <lee.gleason at comcast.net> wrote:
> [...]
> >   Ah, thanks for the info - that did the business. I didn't expect two 
> > locks, that's
> > why my tentative poking and prodding didn't produce results.
> >
> >   I also took apart a spare tape to have a look at. I'm glad I didn't take 
> > the one I
> > need apart to rewind it - springs and little plastic parts shot out of the 
> > case to
> > places  unknwon in the workshop, no doubt never to be seen again.
> >
> >   Anyway, I got the good tape rewound (could have used a 3rd & 4th hand) and
> > read it on another drive successfully. Thanks again.
> >
> Of course, there's no guarantee you can do the same thing again, if needed.
> Media and drives of this vintage will inevitably fail again (and, according
> to Murphy, at the most incovenient time).
> 
> This incident should be the springboard to ideas that lead to an eventual
> migration to newer, more reliable (?) systems.  Especially if the data is
> valuable.
> [...]

There are companies out there who specialise in getting data off old 
tapes.  They do use specialised hardware (including ovens, which is a 
one-off operation - get the data off the tape ASAP once baked), so I 
don't imagine they come cheap.

-- 
Paul Sture