[rescue] QIC Tape Archival

[Cameron Kelly]

yes I don't know much about this topic, or have used a QIC tape drive 
extensively. I appreciate your write-up. Someone had pointed me to 
bear at typewritten.org as "the man" for QIC tape revival, but I didn't 
gotten a response when I sent an email a few months back.

I will look into the cctalk mailing list, thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks,

Cameron

On 2024-12-03 3:01 p.m., Kurt Nowak wrote:
> Cameron,
>
> Just be very careful before you go down this road. There is more to 
> this than just finding someone with an operational streamer. These old 
> tapes very likely have bad drive bands as they are now decades old. 
> It's been an issue everyone is having with these old cartridges...As 
> an initial health test, if you spin the drive wheel on the cartridge, 
> can you see the tape move freely? If there is resistance then the 
> drive band is likely glued to the oxide layer which is bad news and 
> will likely snap as soon as your steamer tries to read it. Don't force 
> it!. Hopefully it's been re-wound and the oxide data layer isn't in 
> contact with the band. Even if it moves freely there is no guarantee 
> that it will survive the transfer without snapping and creating a big 
> tape salad in your cartridge. You might also want to ask someone in 
> the cctalk mailing list who has more advanced techniques than using a 
> plain QIC streamer. Some folks have used techniques, such as baking 
> the tapes in the oven and replacing the old drive bands with 
> plasti-bands. Both have risks.
>
> -Kurt
>
> On Tue, Dec 3, 2024 at 11:40 AM Cameron Kelly via rescue 
> <rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
>
>     Hello,
>
>     I’m based in Canada. I’d have to check what the costs are to ship,
>     I don’t think it’ll be too expensive to ship over if it’s a small
>     packet.
>
>     Thanks,
>     Cameron
>
>     Sent from my iPhone
>
>     > On Dec 3, 2024, at 2:31 PM, Patrik Schindler via rescue
>     <rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
>     >
>     > Hello,
>     >
>     > I do have drives and willing to help, but where are you located?
>     I'm in Germany.
>     >
>     >
>     >> Am 03.12.2024 um 19:55 schrieb Cameron Kelly via rescue
>     <rescue at sunhelp.org>:
>     >>
>     >> Hello everyone,
>     >>
>     >> I have a QIC DC6150 tape that I'm looking to get the contents
>     off of and archive, and am wondering if anyone here would be
>     willing to offer the service, or know of anyone who does. I have a
>     drive of my own but I've been advised to let someone who knows
>     what they are doing, do it, since I don't have any experience
>     using them.
>     >>
>     >> The tape in question is an interesting CorelDraw for UNIX tape
>     that I found at a thrift store earlier in the year and there
>     doesn't seem to be any dump of it online.
>     >>
>     >> Thanks,
>     >>
>     >> Cameron
>     >
>     > :wq! PoC
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
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