Obsolete media (was: Whats the screwiest thing you collect?)

From: James Willing <jimw_at_agora.rdrop.com>
Date: Sun Nov 28 14:08:22 1999

At 02:24 PM 11/28/1999 -0500, Megan wrote:
>
>>IMHO, it makes little sense to retain media for washing-machine-sized
>>disk drives if you don't retain the drives and maintain them in order to
>>retain the value of the media....
>
>Unless there is no equivalent... I've got the exact problem with the
>DECsystem-10 I got earlier this year... it came with two RP06 drives.
>They are 3-phase drives. We don't yet have three phase power (or a
>close approximation of it), so cannot run the drives. Without the
>drives, we cannot even load the microcode for the machine, so it is
>a very large paper-weight.
>
>I've been looking of a non-three-phase replacement for the drives, but
>we still would need three-phase to get the data off the disks I have.

Well... one possible (temporary) solution to this particular dilemma comes
from the world of machineing (metal cutting, etc) where small
shops/hobbiests frequently obtain equipment (mills, lathes, etc.) that is
designed for three phase power.

Rather than replace the motors (an aggrivating and expensive proposition),
there are a number of sources for three phase 'converters' which take
single phase power (or perhaps two phase for really heavy load situations)
and through (most often) a motor/generator combination output real (or
close enough) three phase power for the application.

I would not be surprised of some of the larger equipment rental places had
such critters available for rental (or sale for the long term applications).

Just my two cents worth...

-jim

---
jimw_at_computergarage.org
The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
Received on Sun Nov 28 1999 - 14:08:22 GMT

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