--- "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwightk.elvey_at_amd.com> wrote:
> Hi
> I know someone that re-tires phono idlers. Contact me
> off list and I'll give you the info on him. He said
> he'd give re-tiring a capstan a try if someone want
> to experiment.
> Dwight
Interesting offer, but Allison's suggestion of Tygon
tubing seems to be working just fine. I bought a
foot of it at the hardware store and have plenty to
refurb all of the TU-58-style drives I have (which is
at least 8 - two in an 11/730, one each in two 11/750s,
two (already done) in a TU-58 that came out of an 11/725,
and two HP 4951s).
I've been using the TU-58 pulled from that 11/725 (my boss
bought it for a few hundred dollars 10+ years ago to strip
for parts for our 11/730 that had daily use until 1994)
to archive several dozen kilograms of tapes. I built a
power cable to tap off of the PeeCee supply, and grabbed an
old DLV11J serial cable and have been using a DOS program
to make physical backups. I've only gotten about 20 tapes
read so far. I frequently have to clean the head between
each tape. Fortunately, I have easy access to the top of
the drives. I have about an 80% success rate, reading 100%
of the tapes. Some of the ones from c. 1983 just won't read
every block (VMS 3.x upgrade tapes - all I need now is the
base VMS 3.0 install for an 11/750).
-ethan
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Received on Thu Sep 12 2002 - 12:04:00 BST