On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, Al Kossow wrote:
> Look, I hate Big Oil as much as the next guy (probably more so), but
> there's no reason to turn down good money.
>
> --
>
> Yes there is. There are archivists who work FOR the collecting community
> (not just me) that can't find legacy tape drives to read historically
> significant tapes. Every drive that goes into "data recovery" black holes
> will never see one second of use to help us.
First of all, I'm not advocating the sale of rare tape drives to "'data
recovery' black holes". I can guarantee you that if I had to decide
between selling a 7-track drive to a company offering lots of money or
giving it to Al Kossow, the drive would go to Al Kossow. I think the
dearth of 7-track drives is genuine, and I think you think this too.
> You've struck a raw nerve with this.. I've spent years rediscovering data
> recovery techniques that have been known for twenty years because no one
> in the business will talk about it.
Perhaps because no one asked? Or perhaps because business didn't think
anyone else could possibly benefit from such archane knowledge? We work
in a bubble here. Most of what we deal with is archane knowledge that no
one cares about, with the rare (and sometimes potentially lucrative)
exceptions.
> Take a look on the web for things related to data recovery, file and sector
> formats, etc. and you won't find squat except for the stuff individuals have
> reverse engineered.
Because all that stuff was written and published before the web, and it's
waiting in your piles to be scanned ;)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Fri Dec 19 2003 - 16:28:11 GMT