Should we reuse mag tapes?

[Gregory Smith]

In article <1861 at ihlpl.ATT.COM> res at ihlpl.UUCP writes:

>> It takes a LOT of uses to wear a tape out.  I would guess somewhere in
>> the hundred range or so...

Another issue, if you are using old tapes, is dirt. I have only worked
with 'real' (reel? :-) ) magtape once, on a newly installed previously
owned PDP-11/45. We had a big box of tapes, also previously owned. One
of them had so much scum on it that, after about half the tape was
written, the scum buildup on the head was causing the tape to stick. It
starting making this 'pop pop pop pop pop' noise, as the capstan pulled
the tape free, only to have it get stuck again. I don't imagine there
was a lot of useful data being written to that tape. The first time this
happened, we figured the dirt might have already been on the head, so we
cleaned the head and tried again. Same result. We didn't try yet again.

I have no idea how a tape could get that dirty. Possibly it was used on
very dirty equipment, or maybe the oxide binder had softened for some
strange reason.

-- 
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Greg Smith     University of Toronto      UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg
Have vAX, will hack...