Cassette Tapes Aging

From: Larry Anderson & Diane Hare <foxnhare_at_goldrush.com>
Date: Fri Apr 4 17:19:18 1997

>>How long do cassette tapes last?
>>
>I'm still getting data reliably off of Coleco Datapacks that I recorded
>circa 1986. But I've heard there are limitations. Don't use the tapes much
>any more. One person talking about this a while back claimed it was better
>to store casettes vertically rather than horizontally. Never paid much heed
>to that, so I don't know if it's true or not.

I have just pulled out a cassette from storage that I used in high
school starting late 1980 or early 1981. Besides the tape end breaking
when rewinding (getting a bit brittle I guess), I was able to recover
the files I wanted without a problem. (this was a tape used on a
Commodore PET, not particularly the fastest tape drive on earth). I
don't know anything about vertical, it's been in cassete cases and
cassette binders.

          Larry Anderson
Received on Fri Apr 04 1997 - 17:19:18 BST