Questions tagged [magnetic-tape]
For questions about magnetic tape storage formats
29 questions
4
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How can I restore a TapeDisk backup on a modern PC?
Back in the 1990s and a bit later I used DAT DDS tape for backups to a SCSI tape drive. The software was "TapeDisk" which allowed the DDS tape to appear as a HD. I'm trying to get some files ...
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Is there information available to diagnose DLT2000/4000 POST errors?
I'm trying to read some DLT CompactTape IIIXL tapes.
The Quantum TH3AA (DLT2000XT) drive I have was last working in 2018 but on powerup all the lights illuminate then the lights on the left go out but ...
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1
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Name of Commodore tape format?
How did Commodore call their tape format, if there ever was a specific name for it?
OK, let me clarify. I would be interested in the technical term of the encoding as well as any specific name, should ...
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14
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1
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Help identifying format of old tape backup
I'm recovering data from old QIC backup tapes for an acquaintance, which I do by dumping the raw data in Linux, and decoding the files from it using my own scripts, which handle several standard ...
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31
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2
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What "spectacular to watch" algorithms were used for sorting tapes?
Python's heapq.__about__ variable contains an anecdote (François Pinard, circa 2000):
[1] The disk balancing algorithms which are current, nowadays, are
more annoying than clever, and this is a ...
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21
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2
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What was this mini-computer tape troubleshooting process
Back in the early 1980s I worked at a bank. My department input data into a mini-computer which was then to a mainframe system each day. I'm pretty sure it was a DEC mini, if only because the ...
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2
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Could visual inspection of the magnetic disk be used to detect the quality (or damages) of a floppy disk?
The magnetic floppy disk is sometimes used as an (infrared) light filter as shown on some pictures below. That led me to think about the actual magnetic disk and if inconsistencies or damaged could be ...
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15
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2
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Why are the magnetic floppy disk drives (FDD) heads not frictionless?
After reading this answer to the question How long can a floppy disk spin before wearing out?
... one could see thru the floppy... Not just badly worn, but the magnetic coating was outright polished ...
- 1,772
5
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1
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What information could be recovered from visualized magnetic information?
I was wondering how the data on a floppy disk physically looks like. With data stored on a magnetic disk obviously that isn't visible. The Wikipedia article on floppy disks however shows a beautiful ...
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17
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6
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How does a floppy drive identify the first and last sectors and tracks?
I've recently found a more modern application "Floppy Disk Master-7"(Picture 2) (FDM) that visualized the bad sectors, tracks and clusters(Picture 1) on a floppy disk in a similar (but ...
- 1,772
9
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1
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What is the effect of direct exposure of the magnetic disk of a floppy to ultraviolet (UV) light?
I was thinking of the mold issue of floppies and UV light (UV-C) came to mind. As ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation and floppies use a magnetic disk for storage and I vaguely ...
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2
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4
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Cheapest way to store and load small dataset in the 80s?
An extra, costly floppy drive would overkill when transferring a page of letter, storing game level data, or distributing a piece of BASIC program, and non built-in ones have to be paid. A tape ...
- 3,794
3
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2
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How plausible is this data corruption on an IBM 9-track tape?
Preamble
For a while, I had a copy of a BESM-6 Pascal compiler which worked only on very simple programs, like "Hello, world", and would throw a division by 0 exception on anything more ...
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Why does a DECtape have 576 blocks?
Information online states that a 18/36-bit DECtape holds 576 blocks. People claim it may be possible to add a few more blocks, but no more. Where does this number come from? Is there a hard limit ...
- 3,141
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When and with which system or software was IBM's system of tape headers (VOLx, HDRx, ...) introduced?
Background:
IBM compatible tape structure (*1) consists of a series of label blocks describing the volume and each file (Data Set). Essential the structure looks like this:
VOL1..9 Volume header
...
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6
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3
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How did IBM's "Mag Card" drive and magnetic media work?
In the 1970's IBM popularized an early word processing solution using their popular Selectric typewriter line and something called "Mag Card". This video demonstrates the system in operation.
The ...
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12
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2
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Reading old QIC-80 tape using Linux with ftape
I have an old Colorado 250MB tape drive, which connects to the PC's floppy controller, that I'd like to use to read a QIC-80 cartridge.
I know that very old versions of the Linux kernel used to have ...
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7
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1
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714
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Where to find QICStream software for reading old QIC-150 tape?
I'm trying to restore a backup from an old QIC-150 tape. While I'm able to read the raw data from the tape (using linux), I can't recognize the binary format of the data (the tape is not mine). There ...
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6
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3
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631
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Was sneakernet a job description?
'Sneakernet' is a colloquial term for moving data by walking back and forth with a removable digital medium such as a floppy disk or tape in your hand.
In 'IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems', page 533, ...
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2
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1
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Which tape drives were the last to offer backward compatibility with QIC-150 Tape Cartridges?
I currently have some QIC-150 tape cartridges. These are the Imation DC6250 250 MB tapes. I understand that this came out in the late 1990's. I'd like to read these using a tape drive but want to find ...
- 253
13
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2
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What is the best way to connect an old Tandberg QIC tape drive using today's computers?
I currently have a ton of QIC-250MB tapes that I would like to read from (its been 30 years). I have a Tandberg TDC 3600 SCSI interfaced tape drive but I am lost how to connect it. In the past, with ...
- 253
19
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9
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Developing an application in the era of cassette tapes (audio-tapes)
My colleague and I have just had a conversation and we were wondering how the process of developing an application was done in the era of cassette tapes.
Today we have HDDs, backup HDDs, FTPs, ...
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7
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Why were closed tape loops never a popular storage medium (or were they)?
Tape storage is, in some sense, the most successful technology across all of IT, being first used in the 1950s and AFAIK still unbeaten today in its niche. Though the success is mostly because tape ...
- 610
7
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What DOS software can I test a QIC-02 tape drive with?
I got a Wangtek 5150EQ tape drive that connects to a dumb (made of a bunch of 74-series logic chips) 8-bit ISA tape controller card. The controller card has a bunch of DIP switches which I used to ...
- 1,574
3
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Using VHS/MiniDV/CompactCassette as digital data storage? [closed]
How can
VHS cassettes.
MiniDV cassettes.
Compact audio cassettes
be used as digital data storage?
Can the error correction strength be adjusted?
- 1,769
6
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1
answer
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Using audio tape recorders on non-personal computers?
A Soviet manual (1978) for an interactive integrated development system named ПУЛЬТ (translated as "console" or "[remote] control panel") developed for the BESM-6 mainframe contains a cryptic note:
...
- 20.7k
4
votes
2
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Cost of tape backup in 1980
How much did it cost in 1980 to buy a tape drive capable of backing up 5 megabytes of data? Both for the drive itself and per tape?
(If that exact data is unavailable, I'd be interested in something ...
- 63.8k
14
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5
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2k
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Magnetic tapes as a random access medium?
A two-part question:
How widespread in legacy systems was the practice of using magnetic tapes as a genuinely random access medium at the OS level by pre-formatting them in a way before the first use,...
- 20.7k
5
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1
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Magnetic tape data preservation format
What 'virtual tape' image format is most suited for data preservation i.e. can store metadata like density and media type of original tape, presence of data past EOT marker, parity/ECC bits etc.?
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