Massive Cache of Digital Tapes

[Vagn Anderssen]

ust unearthed a cache of about 160 new unwrapped tapes for the digital cassette drive.

LOVING LIFE!!

Would post pics but this system won't let me.

Vagn Anderssen

[Dave Frederickson]

Vagn,

As mentioned numerous times in the past, NOS tapes are unreliable. The oxide is prone to delaminating from the backing. It doesn't matter that the tape is unused, it's still old and that's the issue. My recommendation is to find a 9114B Disc Drive or better yet, buy a PIL-Box. This gives you access to the hundreds of LIF images on the FTP site and Joe Horn's Online LIF Disk Project.

You should be able to post pics on this system.

Dave

[Vagn Anderssen]

The value of one tape exceeds the value of the drive.

I am thinking about ebaying a 5-8 of boxes of ten. I'll let you know when the auctions go up.

I don't know what a box will fetch but ten tapes at $330 or so per tape is reasonable as I think the digital drives in mint condition go for about $400.

So @ 330 that would be a big discount but I want to start the reserve at a low price about $3,300-$4,000/box When I push the picture button above it asks for a url. I have pics taken from my iPhone. Not on a url.

Anyway, I just won the lottery. Looking to buy a low mileage 928 soon from the 80s.



Vagn Anderssen (Knutsen)

[Dave Frederickson]

(11-30-2014 06:02 PM)Vagn Anderssen Wrote:  The value of one tape exceeds the value of the drive.

I am thinking about ebaying a 5-8 of boxes of ten. I'll let you know when the auctions go up.

I don't know what a box will fetch but ten tapes at $330 or so per tape is reasonable as I think the digital drives in mint condition go for about $400.

So @ 330 that would be a big discount but I want to start the reserve at a low price about $3,300-$4,000/box When I push the picture button above it asks for a url. I have pics taken from my iPhone. Not on a url.

Anyway, I just won the lottery. Looking to buy a low mileage 928 soon from the 80s.



Vagn Anderssen (Knutsen)

For a tape that can only be valued as a collector's item, that's a lot to ask. Typically I see individual tapes go for around $50, but sometimes a box of tapes will go with a drive for not much more than the value of the drive.

While eBay is now mentioned freely on the forum, I believe posting your auction here is against the rules.

Good luck.

Dave

[robert rozee]

with the prices he is mentioning, i think Vagn might be pulling your leg!

rob :-)

[Garth Wilson]

I had to reload a lot of files into my 71 from the tape drive a couple of years ago. I got out the tapes made in the 1980's, and tape after tape, they all worked perfectly, just like new, after 25 years.

Someone here did say they were putting an SD card "drive" into the tape drive though, so when that's available, I may well go that route.

[Vagn Anderssen]

All the tapes are 100% reliable. And the price just went up 20%.

[Dave Frederickson]

(11-30-2014 08:15 PM)robert rozee Wrote:  with the prices he is mentioning, i think Vagn might be pulling your leg!

rob :-)

I presume he's joking about the reliability and perhaps the existence of the tapes as well. So far all I've heard is a lot of talk with nothing to back it up. Reminds me of an internet scam.

[Thomas Klemm]

(12-02-2014 03:38 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Reminds me of an internet scam.

cf. Little Used part of Forum Software

[John W Kercheval]

I have about 20 of these they all work fine. No data loss, no issues. They store well.

[Dave Frederickson]

(12-06-2014 02:19 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  I have about 20 of these they all work fine. No data loss, no issues. They store well.

I find that difficult to believe. Of the ten tapes I've backed up over the past year, every one has had a deteriorated pressure pad. Even if I were given a "good" tape I wouldn't risk saving data on it. The evidence would suggest that the reliability of the tapes is as suspicious as the price.

[MarkPalmer]

I hope there is some degree of sarcasm to this thread. Any of those cassettes, NOS or not, are just time bombs. Depending on where/how they were stored will have the most impact on whether or not they will work for any length of time. I had bought NOS DC100's (same principle) that failed on the very first attempt at using them. I would not risk any big amount of money on old data storage cassettes.

-Mark-

[Dave Frederickson]

(12-10-2014 09:29 PM)MarkPalmer Wrote:  I hope there is some degree of sarcasm to this thread. Any of those cassettes, NOS or not, are just time bombs. Depending on where/how they were stored will have the most impact on whether or not they will work for any length of time. I had bought NOS DC100's (same principle) that failed on the very first attempt at using them. I would not risk any big amount of money on old data storage cassettes.

-Mark-

Thank you, Mark, for backing me up. It's possible that some of the above posts might contain bogus information.

Dave

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

That was my experience with DC100 tapes as well I bought ten of them, most where damaged by the oxide binding to the base on top of it so as soon as the tape moved it tore some of the oxide off. The other thing that went wrong with them is the drive band in them was rotten. However if you really want tapes, and I may be there soon as I am getting a 9835A, Athana can rebuild them Bring new life to your HP-98200 Data Cartridges!

[dramsey]

The real solution (for machines that use the old DC 100 tapes), is to have Larry Atherton modify the drive to accept QIC tapes. These are much more reliable than the old DC100 tapes.