[tech] Re: help with exabyte tape/650MB Optical/8in floppy/TK50 Tape/9 Track tape

[Nick Bannon]

On Wed, Nov 03, 1999 at 05:23:42PM +0800, Dirk Slawinski wrote to
tech-contacts:
> Dear all,
>   as you can see by the subject I need help with some older storage media.
> I have a set of users that have old data they need to retrieve from
> archival media.  Does anyone have any of the following tape/floptical
> drives on campus:
> 
>   Exabyte (5GB?)
>   650MB Optical drive
>   8 inch floppy
>   TK50 tapes
>   9 track reel tape
[...]

Yes - the UCC, for at least some of those.

What's most important to you? and what can you tell me about each item?
Each will have varying degrees of difficulty and require different
amounts of time and effort.

You should be able to read straight off most of the tapes if the
block sizes are right, but there's formatting issues with the
others. Compression might be a problem.

8mm Exabyte should be straightforward. TK50 should be OK with a little
work - the machine with one should boot, but has an unreliable ethernet
card (and two potential replacements).

8" floppy _might_ be doable with some effort - a housemate and I have
a PDP-11 with two 8" floppies that we're going to have a go at over
the holidays.

9 track - I think I know someone that should be able to read that,
I can put you in touch with them.

650MB optical? Don't know about that one.

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal