Old HP-71 tapes from the 80's uploaded

[rprosperi]

1st - Thanks for sharing these with the community.

The tape that failed partway through and the one with 'bad' directory are probably actually intact, but the pressure pad (behind the tape in the center gap of the tape face, to hold the tape tightly against the read/write head) has come loose; that failure mode makes the tapes act as if they are unreadable. Repairing this is pretty straightforward and restores tapes to working condition nearly every time. The process is a bit fiddly and you need to be careful of the small parts, but it's not difficult.

It's been discussed numerous times, this thread has a lot of links and info:

https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-21419.html