* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
@ 2015-05-11 17:18 Noel Chiappa
2015-05-11 17:35 ` John Foust
0 siblings, 1 reply; 9+ messages in thread
From: Noel Chiappa @ 2015-05-11 17:18 UTC (permalink / raw)
> From: Aharon Robbins
> Can anyone still read 9 track tapes? We just un-covered two that date
> from my wife's time in grad school, circa 1989 - 1990. They would be
> tar tapes.
That old, the issue is not going to be the format (TAR is still grokkable),
but the physical condition of the tapes; that old, they might have issues
with shedding of oxide, etc (which a heat soak can mostly cure). If you
really want them read, I would recommend a specialist in reading old tapes;
it will cost, but if you really want the data... I have used Chuck Guzis, in
Washington (state) in the US.
Noel
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-11 17:18 [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes? Noel Chiappa
@ 2015-05-11 17:35 ` John Foust
2015-05-12 5:46 ` Noufal Ibrahim KV
2015-05-21 12:50 ` asbesto
0 siblings, 2 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: John Foust @ 2015-05-11 17:35 UTC (permalink / raw)
At 12:18 PM 5/11/2015, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> > From: Aharon Robbins
>
> > Can anyone still read 9 track tapes? We just un-covered two that date
> > from my wife's time in grad school, circa 1989 - 1990. They would be
> > tar tapes.
>
>That old, the issue is not going to be the format (TAR is still grokkable),
>but the physical condition of the tapes; that old, they might have issues
>with shedding of oxide, etc (which a heat soak can mostly cure). If you
>really want them read, I would recommend a specialist in reading old tapes;
>it will cost, but if you really want the data... I have used Chuck Guzis, in
>Washington (state) in the US.
Oh, that tape may be just fine if it was kept in office conditions.
Chuck Guzis is at http://sydex.com/ . He'd do a fine job.
There may be others at the Classic Computer Collector mailing
list who could assist.
- John
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-11 17:35 ` John Foust
@ 2015-05-12 5:46 ` Noufal Ibrahim KV
2015-05-12 14:02 ` John Foust
2015-05-21 12:50 ` asbesto
1 sibling, 1 reply; 9+ messages in thread
From: Noufal Ibrahim KV @ 2015-05-12 5:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
On Mon, May 11 2015, John Foust wrote:
[...]
> Oh, that tape may be just fine if it was kept in office conditions.
>
> Chuck Guzis is at http://sydex.com/ . He'd do a fine job.
>
> There may be others at the Classic Computer Collector mailing list who
> could assist.
[...]
The Internet Archive[1] has a lot of hardware to extract information
from old media though I don't know if all of it is available.
Footnotes:
[1] http://archive.org
--
Cordially,
Noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-12 5:46 ` Noufal Ibrahim KV
@ 2015-05-12 14:02 ` John Foust
0 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: John Foust @ 2015-05-12 14:02 UTC (permalink / raw)
At 12:46 AM 5/12/2015, Noufal Ibrahim KV wrote:
>The Internet Archive[1] has a lot of hardware to extract information
>from old media though I don't know if all of it is available.
Yes, I'm sure they do - as does the Computer History Museum, or many
of the other computer museums, and a fair number of mailing-list houses,
as well as many collectors, all still have functioning 9-tracks.
There's a few on eBay at any given moment.
A few years ago I travelled to Bettendorf, Iowa, to drop off two failed
9-track drives I had. A fellow there (http://www.comco-inc.com/) has
one of the few - perhaps only? - remaining 9-track service and repair
businesses. At that time he was hoping to down-size and retire, and
was dreaming of finding someone to take over the business. It sounded
like he had a bunch of 88780-class 9-tracks that would go to the
scrapper. At the time, he offered to sell me a working 88780-style
drive for about $1800.
He said most people just want to read old tape data, not write
it, so he wished for a new method to be able to read 7- and 9-track
tapes just to recover data. One can imagine a flexible read head,
a digitizer, and the rest is software. Indeed, that's what a few
people have made as an experiment.
There's still some equipment and processes that require a real drive
and that do not work with tape emulators. He said there's a company
out there that makes a modern 7-track drive for the seismic end of
the oil industry at $50K a pop. He repaired and sold many 9914-style
drives because they handled a longer block length needed by some
oil industry applications. Another remaining market was a few
specific models of 9-track that work with old Alcatel phone switches.
- John
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-11 17:35 ` John Foust
2015-05-12 5:46 ` Noufal Ibrahim KV
@ 2015-05-21 12:50 ` asbesto
1 sibling, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: asbesto @ 2015-05-21 12:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
Mon, May 11, 2015 at 12:35:41PM -0500, John Foust wrote:
> > > Can anyone still read 9 track tapes? We just un-covered two that date
> >but the physical condition of the tapes; that old, they might have issues
> >with shedding of oxide, etc (which a heat soak can mostly cure). If you
> Oh, that tape may be just fine if it was kept in office conditions.
well, it's a matter of chemical bonds that broke; something in
the tape just change due to age, and sometimes a good stored
tape can be difficult to read, and need baking. We're also able
to do that, we recovered a lot of media at our museum.
ps http://museum.freaknet.org (very old site, sorry)
--
[ ::::::::: 73 de IW9HGS : http://freaknet.org/asbesto ::::::::::: ]
[ Freaknet Medialab :: Poetry Hacklab : Dyne.Org :: Radio Cybernet ]
[ NON SCRIVERMI USANDO LETTERE ACCENTATE - NON MANDARMI ALLEGATI ]
[ *I DELETE* EMAIL > 100K, ATTACHMENTS, HTML, M$-WORD DOC and SPAM ]
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-21 12:48 ` asbesto
@ 2015-05-22 13:25 ` Dave Horsfall
0 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2015-05-22 13:25 UTC (permalink / raw)
On Thu, 21 May 2015, asbesto wrote:
> we have a working setup for data recovery :)
> we're in Sicilia, Italy!
Ahh, the home of the Cosa Nostra :-)
"Let us do a deal with you."
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."
http://www.horsfall.org/spam.html (and check the home page whilst you're there)
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-11 8:20 Aharon Robbins
2015-05-11 15:07 ` Armando Stettner
@ 2015-05-21 12:48 ` asbesto
2015-05-22 13:25 ` Dave Horsfall
1 sibling, 1 reply; 9+ messages in thread
From: asbesto @ 2015-05-21 12:48 UTC (permalink / raw)
Mon, May 11, 2015 at 11:20:40AM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote:
> Can anyone still read 9 track tapes? We just uncovered two that date
> from my wife's time in grad school, circa 1989 - 1990. They would
> be tar tapes.
we have a working setup for data recovery :)
we're in Sicilia, Italy!
;)
--
[ ::::::::: 73 de IW9HGS : http://freaknet.org/asbesto ::::::::::: ]
[ Freaknet Medialab :: Poetry Hacklab : Dyne.Org :: Radio Cybernet ]
[ NON SCRIVERMI USANDO LETTERE ACCENTATE - NON MANDARMI ALLEGATI ]
[ *I DELETE* EMAIL > 100K, ATTACHMENTS, HTML, M$-WORD DOC and SPAM ]
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
2015-05-11 8:20 Aharon Robbins
@ 2015-05-11 15:07 ` Armando Stettner
2015-05-21 12:48 ` asbesto
1 sibling, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Armando Stettner @ 2015-05-11 15:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
How about the computer museum in Mountain View or Paul Allen's computer museum (with many working antiques) in Seattle?
aps
Sent from my iPad
> On May 11, 2015, at 01:20, Aharon Robbins <arnold at skeeve.com> wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
> Can anyone still read 9 track tapes? We just uncovered two that date
> from my wife's time in grad school, circa 1989 - 1990. They would
> be tar tapes.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Arnold
> _______________________________________________
> TUHS mailing list
> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs
>
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes?
@ 2015-05-11 8:20 Aharon Robbins
2015-05-11 15:07 ` Armando Stettner
2015-05-21 12:48 ` asbesto
0 siblings, 2 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Aharon Robbins @ 2015-05-11 8:20 UTC (permalink / raw)
Hi.
Can anyone still read 9 track tapes? We just uncovered two that date
from my wife's time in grad school, circa 1989 - 1990. They would
be tar tapes.
Thanks!
Arnold
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
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2015-05-11 17:18 [TUHS] reading 9 track tapes? Noel Chiappa
2015-05-11 17:35 ` John Foust
2015-05-12 5:46 ` Noufal Ibrahim KV
2015-05-12 14:02 ` John Foust
2015-05-21 12:50 ` asbesto
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2015-05-11 15:07 ` Armando Stettner
2015-05-21 12:48 ` asbesto
2015-05-22 13:25 ` Dave Horsfall
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