Reading old tapes

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Thu Jun 24 16:39:38 2004

Over dinner with a friend the other night the conversation landed on
the subject of reading old magnetic tapes. I learned something which
sounds different from what I've heard in the past, so I figured I
would pass this along.

This was for audio tapes, but it makes sense that it would apply to
digital data tapes too.

The comment was that old tapes absorb moisture into the oxide, which
makes things sticky and causes the oxide to stick to the wrong spots
and flake off the tape. The solution is to set the tape in a fruit
dryer at modest heat (150 F or so) for a while.

Presumably a desiccator, vacuum or otherwise, could serve too.

Apparently this worked well for 20 year old audio tapes.

           paul
Received on Thu Jun 24 2004 - 16:39:38 BST