[rescue] How well-preserved are these software tapes?

[Andrew Ferguson]

On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 at 21:35, Rob Craig via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org>
wrote:

> Are those type of tapes still able to be read without breaking? I was
> trying to read some QIC 2GB tapes for an AS/400 and they just break on
> read. The same for tapes for a HP 9000.
>

You'd likely want to check and possibly repair the tension band - see here
for more
<https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/qic-tape-cartridge-belt-replacement-youtube-video.47162/>.
So this wouldn't be a straightforward process.
Andrew


>
> > On 16 Mar 2026, at 22:26, silcreval via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Andrew
> >
> > Definitely worth preserving. The early 68020 / 68030 would be very
> welcome.
> >
> > If there is no-one able to do it for you I can image them - but I
> imagine there will be people more local to you.
> >
> > Ian
> >
> >> On 16 Mar 2026, at 17:51, Andrew Ferguson via rescue <
> rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> Last week I rescued a bunch of computing equipment and old media from a
> store-room clearout at my university. I'm trying to find appropriate homes
> for all of the hardware (with one or two exceptions, I don't plan to keep
> any of it - no space!!).
> >>
> >> Other than a Datacube Max-box (which I believe(?) may contain an early
> VMEbus-based Sun system) there's no Sun hardware, but there are quite a few
> Sun-branded QIC tapes that I'm pretty sure would have been used with the
> Datacube. I've attached a picture to this email of some of them (hoping the
> attachment will come through!)
> >>
> >> What I want to figure out is - is the software on these tapes preserved
> or not? i.e. how concerned should I be about ensuring that they go to a
> place that will try to recover them? I've been speaking to a couple of
> places about transferring all the media and equipment, and if these tapes
> are "significant" in any way I can alert them of this.
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >> Andrew
> >>
> >> <sun-tapes.jpg>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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