31 Jul
2025
31 Jul
'25
3:03 p.m.
I am Michael St. Clair, Chuck's nephew by marriage. I'm writing from his
account to establish bona fides; apologies for any surprise it might cause.
You appear to be the people he considered his professional peers, so I'm
reaching out to you for some help. Chuck had little warning before he
passed. He left his equipment and development environments in working
order, but without a legacy plan. I'm a software engineer and data
archivist, and my aunt has asked me to find good homes for his equipment
and IP. I'm going to organize and open-source the software and other IP
that he hadn't already released. However, I don't know how to safely
use, maintain, or even store his physical gear.
I'm only in Eugene for a couple more days on this particular trip. is
there any specific physical information (that doesn't require
disassembly) that might be useful to potential adopters? I don't have
time to make a complete inventory, but here's a list of highlights and a
Drive folder containing some photographs. This is not (yet) a formal
"come and get it" offer, but it's likely a prelude to one (excluding
business documents and computers).
Highlights:
- Multiple 8-inch floppy drives in built-like-a-truck housings
- Dozens of assorted 80s and 90s-era I/O devices -- ZIP drives, 5 1/4"
readers, etc.
- rack-mounted HP 7970B tape drive
- another full-height rack-mounted 9-track tape drive with external
control panel; no manufacturer or model number on anything I can get to
- custom-built 'tape dehydrator'
- around a thousand pieces of assorted removable media, primarily 3.5",
5 1/4", 8", CD, DVD, and a variety of late-90s and 00s digital tape
formats. Per labels and spot-checks, their contents range from
widely-distributed commercial software to Sydex master floppies to lost
BASIC dialects to industrial control software in CP/M formats. Basically
25 years of Chuck's professional life and the industry around it.
- full electronics workbench with partially-finished projects, including
something involving Pertec controllers
- a variety of functioning vintage keyboards, from IBM Model Ms to
something apparently taken from an industrial control station.
Drive folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1KUs-x6t4OtzS_b7lxYMM7i-GxNi-QRv3
I'd very much appreciate any input.
-- Michael St. Clair
31 Jul
31 Jul
4:30 p.m.
Hi Michael,
Take your time, and don't let it stress you.
Chuck was the foremost expert on many aspects of the sub-fields.
Among the diskettes, particularly 8" and 5.25", he had a lot (many
hundreds) of diskettes from other types of computers, probably at least
half from CP/M on those other computers. [hopefully labelled?] Those will
not be readable on PC, but are valuable to any other people doing disk
format conversion, (although I have retired.)
In order to switch drives around as needed, he fitted many of his external
drive cases and power supplies with DC37 and/or "centronics" syle 37
and/or 50 pin connectors. SOME of the drives in some of those cases are
non-standard/unusual drives, such as 100tpi 5.25" (micropolis, Tandon
TM100-4M) Those will be useless for normal PC work, but rare/invaluable
for those dealing with non-standard formats.
[On behalf of my sister]: Are you also dealing with his tubas?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
2245 Carquinez Avenue (510) 234-3397
ElCerrito, CA 94530
On Thu, 31 Jul 2025, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
I am Michael St. Clair, Chuck's nephew by
marriage. I'm writing from his
account to establish bona fides; apologies for any surprise it might cause.
You appear to be the people he considered his professional peers, so I'm
reaching out to you for some help. Chuck had little warning before he
passed. He left his equipment and development environments in working
order, but without a legacy plan. I'm a software engineer and data
archivist, and my aunt has asked me to find good homes for his equipment
and IP. I'm going to organize and open-source the software and other IP
that he hadn't already released. However, I don't know how to safely
use, maintain, or even store his physical gear.
I'm only in Eugene for a couple more days on this particular trip. is
there any specific physical information (that doesn't require
disassembly) that might be useful to potential adopters? I don't have
time to make a complete inventory, but here's a list of highlights and a
Drive folder containing some photographs. This is not (yet) a formal
"come and get it" offer, but it's likely a prelude to one (excluding
business documents and computers).
Highlights:
- Multiple 8-inch floppy drives in built-like-a-truck housings
- Dozens of assorted 80s and 90s-era I/O devices -- ZIP drives, 5 1/4"
readers, etc.
- rack-mounted HP 7970B tape drive
- another full-height rack-mounted 9-track tape drive with external
control panel; no manufacturer or model number on anything I can get to
- custom-built 'tape dehydrator'
- around a thousand pieces of assorted removable media, primarily 3.5",
5 1/4", 8", CD, DVD, and a variety of late-90s and 00s digital tape
formats. Per labels and spot-checks, their contents range from
widely-distributed commercial software to Sydex master floppies to lost
BASIC dialects to industrial control software in CP/M formats. Basically
25 years of Chuck's professional life and the industry around it.
- full electronics workbench with partially-finished projects, including
something involving Pertec controllers
- a variety of functioning vintage keyboards, from IBM Model Ms to
something apparently taken from an industrial control station.
Drive folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1KUs-x6t4OtzS_b7lxYMM7i-GxNi-QRv3
I'd very much appreciate any input.
-- Michael St. Clair
1 Aug
1 Aug
8:26 a.m.
Fred's advice is good here - many of these drives are likely to be very important to
archivists and preservationists (there are several of us on this list) and not
general-purpose "PC" devices. Chuck was an expert in many things relating to
magnetic storage, and a rare expert indeed in tape recovery. (I'm not one of those.
I sent all my tape inquiries Chuck's way.) I can't imagine how I'd go about
this, but we all should probably start thinking about succession planning if we
haven't yet. :-) Perhaps recruit people in his contacts list to see if anyone is
able to swing by and help sort into categories and subcategories of interest? The
entirety of this collection would be "a lot" for any one person (or institution)
to deal with, but being able to mete out portions to various experts might help make it
more manageable.
Chuck meant a lot to us here. We miss him deeply. My condolences to you and your family.
7:27 p.m.
On 8/1/25 08:26, David Schmidt via cctalk wrote:
Fred's advice is good here - many of these drives
are likely to be very important to archivists and preservationists (there are several of
us on this list) and not general-purpose "PC" devices. Chuck was an expert in
many things relating to magnetic storage, and a rare expert indeed in tape recovery.
(I'm not one of those. I sent all my tape inquiries Chuck's way.) I can't
imagine how I'd go about this, but we all should probably start thinking about
succession planning if we haven't yet. :-) Perhaps recruit people in his contacts
list to see if anyone is able to swing by and help sort into categories and subcategories
of interest? The entirety of this collection would be "a lot" for any one
person (or institution) to deal with, but being able to mete out portions to various
experts might help make it more manageable.
Chuck meant a lot to us here. We miss him deeply. My condolences to you and your
family.
Yes, they're very clearly not general-purpose PC devices, and I had a
pretty strong suspicion most of them were modified and/or valuable,
given some of the fragmentary notes I found...
On recruitment: that's a good suggestion, although I'm certainly not up
on who's an expert on what in this field!
We appreciate the condolences, and it's somewhat comforting to see just
how much he meant in this community.
7:22 p.m.
Thanks, Fred.
Yes, several hundred diskettes are labeled as being in CP/M or
proprietary formats. Many also have interesting annotations regarding
particular pathologies they exhibit.
Noted on the drives. I can verify that there are a lot of 37- and 50-pin
connectors, but don't really want to disassemble the cases. It sounds
like a lot of things about his gear are public knowledge, though, which
is nice...
Re: tubas -- unfortunately, my aunt has a wide musical circle and has
already dispositioned the tubas.
On 7/31/25 16:30, Fred Cisin wrote:
Hi Michael,
Take your time, and don't let it stress you.
Chuck was the foremost expert on many aspects of the sub-fields.
Among the diskettes, particularly 8" and 5.25", he had a lot (many
hundreds) of diskettes from other types of computers, probably at least
half from CP/M on those other computers. [hopefully labelled?] Those
will not be readable on PC, but are valuable to any other people doing
disk format conversion, (although I have retired.)
In order to switch drives around as needed, he fitted many of his
external drive cases and power supplies with DC37 and/or "centronics"
syle 37 and/or 50 pin connectors. SOME of the drives in some of those
cases are non-standard/unusual drives, such as 100tpi 5.25" (micropolis,
Tandon TM100-4M) Those will be useless for normal PC work, but rare/
invaluable for those dealing with non-standard formats.
[On behalf of my sister]: Are you also dealing with his tubas?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
2245 Carquinez Avenue (510) 234-3397
ElCerrito, CA 94530
31 Jul
31 Jul
4:45 p.m.
The second tape drive looks like a Qualstar 1260 and the third a Fujitsu
M2444 series.
Bob
On 7/31/2025 3:03 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
I am Michael St. Clair, Chuck's nephew by
marriage. I'm writing from his
account to establish bona fides; apologies for any surprise it might cause.
You appear to be the people he considered his professional peers, so I'm
reaching out to you for some help. Chuck had little warning before he
passed. He left his equipment and development environments in working
order, but without a legacy plan. I'm a software engineer and data
archivist, and my aunt has asked me to find good homes for his equipment
and IP. I'm going to organize and open-source the software and other IP
that he hadn't already released. However, I don't know how to safely
use, maintain, or even store his physical gear.
I'm only in Eugene for a couple more days on this particular trip. is
there any specific physical information (that doesn't require
disassembly) that might be useful to potential adopters? I don't have
time to make a complete inventory, but here's a list of highlights and a
Drive folder containing some photographs. This is not (yet) a formal
"come and get it" offer, but it's likely a prelude to one (excluding
business documents and computers).
Highlights:
- Multiple 8-inch floppy drives in built-like-a-truck housings
- Dozens of assorted 80s and 90s-era I/O devices -- ZIP drives, 5 1/4"
readers, etc.
- rack-mounted HP 7970B tape drive
- another full-height rack-mounted 9-track tape drive with external
control panel; no manufacturer or model number on anything I can get to
- custom-built 'tape dehydrator'
- around a thousand pieces of assorted removable media, primarily 3.5",
5 1/4", 8", CD, DVD, and a variety of late-90s and 00s digital tape
formats. Per labels and spot-checks, their contents range from
widely-distributed commercial software to Sydex master floppies to lost
BASIC dialects to industrial control software in CP/M formats. Basically
25 years of Chuck's professional life and the industry around it.
- full electronics workbench with partially-finished projects, including
something involving Pertec controllers
- a variety of functioning vintage keyboards, from IBM Model Ms to
something apparently taken from an industrial control station.
Drive folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1KUs-x6t4OtzS_b7lxYMM7i-GxNi-QRv3
I'd very much appreciate any input.
-- Michael St. Clair
--
Vintage computers and electronics
www.dvq.com
www.tekmuseum.com
www.decmuseum.org
24 Aug
24 Aug
12:33 a.m.
Hello,
First I definitely want to say that I am sorry for your family's loss.
I stumbled upon the announcement of Chuck's death via a post by someone else which
lead me to your post discussing his equipment left behind.
I never got to interact with him but was getting ready to try contacting Chuck.
I am a professional audio engineer along with magnetic tape researcher and archivist.
I actually happened to be researching a type of computer platform tonite, I also run a
independent multimedia publisher starting an in-house videogame development team, which
lead me to the posts about Chuck, causing me to realize this was the same guy I had been
following posts from online for years now but regarding data recovery from magnetic tapes
including "datasette" audio cassettes.
Outside of directly computer-related fields he has shown up as a topic in many tape medium
related discussions, infamous for being the guy to come up with a working process for
restoring "moisture rotted" tapes. There are actually loads of people out there
saying it can't be done, that what he talked about was baloney, while others are
baking old tapes in their kitchen ovens trying to figure out a way to do it too.
I've been in the process of rebuilding my audio equipment lab after my own events of
family tragedy and weirdness had me starting over from scratch recently. I had planned to
introduce myself to Chuck later this year and specifically get details on the preservation
and dehydration/restoration techniques he hammered out for tape humidity.
I can't believe I ever waited.
This is seriously a field that is both understudied while still being a storage medium
built on more history than most but being ditched in such an extreme way by the public
despite magnetic tape still being a very crucial part of data preservation in labs as well
as government.
I feel bad sending a message like this as I absolutely don't want to seem like I'm
trying to take advantage of a tragedy or ask for any favors but as someone who takes tape
preservation more seriously than most people, along with being family-connected to Joseph
Roizen who helped develop Color Broadcast standards as well as many elements of what went
into Video and Data on tape plus much more. It's very important to me in a historical
sense that I reach out to you.
I also very much appreciate the work you are doing by handling some of these affairs.
I am only beginning to understand now just what an important man Chuck really has been and
will honestly continue to be in these very quiet but influential capacities.
More than anything, I am specifically interested in any details you can provide to me
about his custom tape dehydrator. Any information provided or that I can get out of it or
all else around Chuck's work with tape medium storage would not just be absolutely
appreciated by someone who finds it professionally important but also understands the
global historical importance.
Needless to say, I would also do my part in working to share or document whatever
wasn't already known and can definitely house for continued use any cassette/datasette
(and vhs) equipment.
I hope the weekend has been treating you well.
Take care,
Lichen Euchella
gravityloop.org
dynamicentitygravityloop(a)proton.me
25 Aug
25 Aug
6:31 a.m.
Hi Lichen,
There is actually quite a bit of research and professional practice within the audiovisual
preservation field on tape backing and magnetic tape preservation. What is being described
as "moisture rotted" tapes is likely the chemical degradation know as Sticky
Shed Syndrome (or sometimes Soft Binder Syndrome) within the field. Tape baking is used in
extreme cases where Sticky Shed Syndrome has progressed enough that it is not possible to
safely playback or digitize a tape without risking stripping the magnetic oxide off of the
binder. Note that tape baking is a temporary "cure" and does not constitute a
permanent form of chemical restoration. The idea is that tape baking is used as a last
ditch effort before digitizing the tape when no other avenues are available. As such, tape
baking should be performed right before digitizing a tape as the firming of the binder
will be temporary. The International Association of Sound and Video Archives has
Guidelines for the Preservation of Video
Recordings<https://www.iasa-web.org/sites/default/files/publications/IAS…
that describe the tape baking process and what kind of oven is necessary.
Best,
Magnus
Magnus Berg, MA, MLIS (they/he)
Digital Scholarship & Liaison Librarian | UTM
Library<https://utm.library.utoronto.ca/>
University of Toronto Mississauga | 3359 Mississauga Road
(905) 569-4980 | magnus.berg@utoronto.ca<mailto:magnus.berg@utoronto.ca>
Digital Scholarship<https://library.utm.utoronto.ca/research/digital-scholarship>
________________________________
From: dynamicentitygravityloop--- via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: August 24, 2025 3:33 AM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: dynamicentitygravityloop(a)proton.me <dynamicentitygravityloop(a)proton.me>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Chuck Guzis -- Equipment and Archive
Hello,
First I definitely want to say that I am sorry for your family's loss.
I stumbled upon the announcement of Chuck's death via a post by someone else which
lead me to your post discussing his equipment left behind.
I never got to interact with him but was getting ready to try contacting Chuck.
I am a professional audio engineer along with magnetic tape researcher and archivist.
I actually happened to be researching a type of computer platform tonite, I also run a
independent multimedia publisher starting an in-house videogame development team, which
lead me to the posts about Chuck, causing me to realize this was the same guy I had been
following posts from online for years now but regarding data recovery from magnetic tapes
including "datasette" audio cassettes.
Outside of directly computer-related fields he has shown up as a topic in many tape medium
related discussions, infamous for being the guy to come up with a working process for
restoring "moisture rotted" tapes. There are actually loads of people out there
saying it can't be done, that what he talked about was baloney, while others are
baking old tapes in their kitchen ovens trying to figure out a way to do it too.
I've been in the process of rebuilding my audio equipment lab after my own events of
family tragedy and weirdness had me starting over from scratch recently. I had planned to
introduce myself to Chuck later this year and specifically get details on the preservation
and dehydration/restoration techniques he hammered out for tape humidity.
I can't believe I ever waited.
This is seriously a field that is both understudied while still being a storage medium
built on more history than most but being ditched in such an extreme way by the public
despite magnetic tape still being a very crucial part of data preservation in labs as well
as government.
I feel bad sending a message like this as I absolutely don't want to seem like I'm
trying to take advantage of a tragedy or ask for any favors but as someone who takes tape
preservation more seriously than most people, along with being family-connected to Joseph
Roizen who helped develop Color Broadcast standards as well as many elements of what went
into Video and Data on tape plus much more. It's very important to me in a historical
sense that I reach out to you.
I also very much appreciate the work you are doing by handling some of these affairs.
I am only beginning to understand now just what an important man Chuck really has been and
will honestly continue to be in these very quiet but influential capacities.
More than anything, I am specifically interested in any details you can provide to me
about his custom tape dehydrator. Any information provided or that I can get out of it or
all else around Chuck's work with tape medium storage would not just be absolutely
appreciated by someone who finds it professionally important but also understands the
global historical importance.
Needless to say, I would also do my part in working to share or document whatever
wasn't already known and can definitely house for continued use any cassette/datasette
(and vhs) equipment.
I hope the weekend has been treating you well.
Take care,
Lichen Euchella
gravityloop.org
dynamicentitygravityloop(a)proton.me
1:02 p.m.
Hi Magnus,
Thanks for the link but as I said, this is a field that is still under researched with a
lot of misinformation out there especially on the less academic or lab side of things.
I understand this stuff and the processes but I am here to help other people understand
and acquire these skills for the future.
The thing is, if he has custom equipment for it he may have also documented a reliable
workflow that could be used in smaller operations, at home setups, etc.
I'm looking to further disseminate information as well as continue the research
outside of corporate interests. Making sure knowledge is handed off and widely available,
including in print form.
So while your helping spirit is definitely appreciated, as a professional audio engineer
I'm explaining the state of things outside of lab preservation. Not to mention, you
can read posts online by professionals even talking trash on the stuff linked. This is
exactly how I found out about Chuck years ago.
I'm chiming in here because I'm specifically interested in the knowledge Chuck
collected, preserving any techniques he hammered into followable steps or additional
knowledge not spread, and to share in more ways for others that didn't liaten or
haven't figured it out yet.
He was someone who knew a lot of tricks and helped a lot of people.
Still getting used to the format of this place and apologize of this double posted.
And since this is somewhat my introduction for everyone else, I want to also say Hello. I
am a Cherokee from the Nation in Oklahoma living off-Rez right now. Although I mentioned
audio engineer, I mean it in a very Classical sense having been trained by some old school
guys in Fresno and learning a lot about electrical engineering as part of that. Aside from
Joe Roizen, I also am relayed to Bill Hickey Jr., who taught me much of what I know about
Data on Tape, sending me down this path being himself one of the foremost specialists on
data as sound, data pn tape, etc. Which more specifically Data Storage is my tape interest
while not just specifically analog signals or audio recording.
I also work in language preservation and translation of Cherokee.
So I hope all that sort of helps paint why I'm also interested in non-localized
information storage or even really in-league with academia as much as archivists,
utilitarian, and Indigenous folks surviving with repurposed junk or recovering nearly-lost
history.
- Lichen
21
days inactive
46
days old
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Bob Rosenbloom -
Chuck Guzis -
David Schmidt -
dynamicentitygravityloop＠proton.me -
Fred Cisin -
Lichen Euchella
-
Magnus Berg