DC-600/300XL tape cart observation

[Chuck Guzis]

On 1 May 2007 at 7:47, Richard wrote:

> Would it be possible to setup something like the rig that Al has at
> the Computer History Museum for QIC tapes?

Maybe, but I think the best thing to start with  would be a standard 
3-motor setup (one motor per reel and one on the capstan. You'd have 
to remove the tape spools from the cartridge, of course, but I 
suspect it might be possible to set something like this up with the 
works from an old audio cassette drive.

Tracks on a QIC cart are serpentine--they reverse direction at each 
tape end. QIC tape tracks tend to be very narrow, which means that if 
you're going to use lower tape speeds, a modern head (GMR?) might be 
a good choice.

I don't know why it couldn't be done, but we haven't yet seen a lot 
of QIC recovery work to justify this yet.  I suspect that DLTwill be 
the jackpot medium in data recovery.

> They don't use helical scan on QIC tapes do they?

Not on the big carts, but I think there were some helical-scan Travan 
tapes, weren't there? And there was the Pereos--thank heavens, the 
life on that venture was mercifully short.

Cheers,
Chuck