[Info-vax] VAX VMS going forward

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 7/27/20 1:57 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 7/26/2020 4:06 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?=  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>> On 7/25/2020 9:46 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>>> =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?=  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>>> I also suspect that the actual recovery rate may turn
>>>>> out somewhat less than 100% if attempted to read them all.
>>>>> Bad tapes, bad tape drives etc..
>>>>
>>>> My experience with nine-tracks is that there is nearly a 100% recovery
>>>> rate.  Occasionally I'll come across 3M Black Watch tapes that need 
>>>> special
>>>> processing, but for the most part one cleaning pass and they read 
>>>> through
>>>> fine.
>>>
>>> If the tapes were 5 years old, the tape drive was 5 years old and
>>> the tape drive was used every week, then I would expect nearly 100%
>>> as well.
>>
>> I'm talking mostly 1970s and 1980s tapes.  Most of them stored under 
>> office
>> conditions.  Occasionally I get older tapes and newer tape and the 
>> occasional
>> attic-stored tape.
> 
> I was always told that tapes (yes 9 track) should be copied to
> new tapes after 10 years to avoid risk of data loss.
> 

As opposed to DAT's which I have seen suffer data loss in as little
as a month.

bill