Tape read error - now what ?

[terryl at sail.LABS.TEK.COM]

In article <9514 at darkstar.ucsc.edu> haynes at ucscc.UCSC.EDU.UUCP (Jim Haynes) writes:
>If you have access to an IBM mainframe you can try having the tape
>copied on it.  IBM tape drives often are able to read tapes that
>other drives cannot.  It's one of the few uses I've found for
>IBM mainframes.


     Ditto that for CDC mainframes. Do a volume copy (or whatever the CDC
terminology is...). I've run across quite a few system release tapes that
I couldn't read, and the CDC drives just spun merrily along. It's probably
the second best thing CDC mainframes are good for (the first being they have
some cute graphics-oriented games you can play on the operator console!!! (-:).