Ask HN: Any way to read a 9-track 1/2“ tape in Silicon Valley?

14 points·Animats··10 comments

I'd like to read two old 9-track, 1600BPI open reel computer tapes from the 1980s. Unix TAR format. They contain source code for 30 year old software, one of the earliest proof of correctness systems. I'd like to upload it to Github for historical purposes.

Anyone still have that capability?

View on HN

I asked around and Lyle Buckley is the guy to contact for this. He charges for this, but he might be willing to do it pro bono if it's for a good cause.

Marc (who's working with me on the Alto restoration) said he could dump the tape into SIMH format, but it would be up to you to untar it from that.

Don't know if they have the capability, but an interesting place to start might be the Computer History museum in Mtn View. http://www.computerhistory.org/

Their IBM 1401 can't do it. Its tape drives don't go up to 1600 BPI.

Might they know someone who has access to that hardware even if they don't have it on hand themselves?

Computer History Museum has 1 1401 - http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/about-the-computer-hist...

This guy got one. (Man take me back, used to have the HP drive on my first job in the 90's. (Sigh) The bad old days...)

Maybe he'll take pity on you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEL8wnW5uvs

How about the US Department of Defense? They seem to love maintaining old tech.

There's a chance the living computer museum in Seattle has such a drive.

http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org

There are a few commercial data recovery services that can still do it, but I'm being quoted $500 a reel and up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com