Date   : Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:44:47 -0000
From   : dominic@... (BRAHMS)
Subject: Digital Services Digistore Tape Drive

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk@...>
To: <bbc-micro@...>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 11:10 PM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Digital Services Digistore Tape Drive


> Ian Wolstenholme wrote:
>> In record time, ...
>
> blimey! :-)
>
>> 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.
>
> Whip the lid off the thing and give the head a clean with a cotton bud 
> soaked
> in some isopropyl alcohol if you haven't already. It's probably filthy...
>
Hear hear, it may even be a bit "rusty". I used to run a load of these 
drives
after decomissioning them I needed one a few years later. It hadn't been 
cleaned
before storage (nice dry office). On de-cupboarding it the muck on the head 
had
oxidised and grown whiskers on two of the drives. They required "vigorous"
cleaning which I seem to remember involved the tape from a cleaning tape and
a tiny bit of toothpaste until they were all nicely buffed up.

Don't keep trying all the tapes until you've checked the head - if theres 
anything
bad stuck to the head it will scratch the tapes to buggery and they will be 
useless
- this often happens with disc drives too.

Dom