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Comment by tgflynn | Hacker News Reader

I'm guessing that would be one of the old reel to reel tapes. I think the hardest part (assuming the tape is intact) would be finding a working tape reader. From pictures I've seen I think those were real beasts, in cabinets as large as the mainframe itself. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA is one of the few places that might have one.

Otherwise you might be able to build your own tape reader. You could probably make it a lot smaller and simpler than the original machines since throughput wouldn't really be an issue. Still it would probably be quite an engineering project.

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I have a couple of 4U 9 track tape drives with centronics SCSI interfaces. Pulled from 90s Sun gear from ex Federal deployment. Government stuck with tape for a long time.

One of them ran in 1999, at least, but they've been in the barn since.

rebuilding that to functional might be harder than making some hacked up sensor to run tape through.

Maybe there'd at least be a way to salvage the basic mechanical structure, replace worn out mechanical parts with 3D printed or CNC'd equivalents and replace the sensor head with some kind of modern magnetometer.

I'd bet they'd operate with a cleaning. maybe some caps replaced. Any rubber belts are gone but i think these are direct drive.

Now that would be a fun hack, no? I bet with the collective knowledge from this thread I might be able to pull it off.

I’m still working for the man, though.

I recall a time that I wrote a program that called for a tape mount and a file to be read where this file spanned 2 volumes. There was a 3270 terminal next to the tape reader. After the job is submitted, I was amazed at the velocity of the read.

The all time favorite raised floor data center story: I worked for a commercial software vendor back in the day where sufficient physical security for the data center was a lock on the building door, but no locks to the raised tile floor area.

One day I walked through the doors of the data center and everything was covered in a fine ash-like powder. Another employee brought their young child with him to the data center. This child pressed the red button labeled “Haylon Dump”.

I was told by the operators on watch that everyone was lucky to find their way out safely.

New locks were installed the next and badge swipes were required for entry.

Amazingly, all the hardware mostly survived.

Yep, that is why Halon is used in data centers. It stops the combustion reaction at relatively low concentrations and it is a gas so it does not damage electronics. However, breathing it in is not really recommended.

I am surprised at your last line, if there was not a fire, why did some hardware not survive?

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