Date   : Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:50:43 +0000
From   : robert@... (Rob)
Subject: Digital Services Digistore Tape Drive

At 23:01 20/12/2006, Ian Wolstenholme wrote:

>And it works!! Although I haven't recovered anything
>from the tapes.  There are 4 tapes, one unmarked and
>loose and three in cases marked "Thursday A", "Friday B"
>and "Friday C".  The loose one and "Friday B" say "Bad
>tape" when I try to use them and give "Medium error"
>and "Recover error" respectively, whilst the other two
>tapes say "Blank check" so they must be empty.

Having used DC600's (and 1200's) extensively in the past, I would 
suggest you give the heads a good clean first - they were terrible 
for giving tape errors all the time.  and depending where the error 
lies, you can get any sort of error.  Check that drive wheel too, as 
the older ones are decomposing as we speak..

I've also had tapes wind themselves off one spool when the BOT/EOT 
sensor or light has been obscured by grime..  Luckily it's usually 
fairly easy to disassemble the cartridge and sort it out.

Definitely try your best to get it reading the tapes you have first, 
before you trash them.  There may be something irreplaceable on 
them!  (After all, if they took the trouble to take backups, somebody 
thought it their data was  important once!)


Rob