Re: Is ProDOS supported in OSX?

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Paul Schlyter wrote:

>Scott Alfter <salfter@salfter.dyndns.org> wrote:
 
<snip>

>> As for other people/organizations and their data, if it's a sufficiently
>> large amount (like all those 9-track tapes that NASA has accumulated), it
>> isn't always feasible to keep migrating the data to newer formats.
> 
>Actually, NASA had a project some 6-8 years ago of moving all these
>magnetic tape data to CD's.  They encountered two difficulties:
> 
>1. Finding equipment able to read these tapes (some of which were older
>than 9-track tapes -- before them there were 7-track tapes for instance,
>which required a different tape station) wasn't easy.
> 
>2. And when these tape stations had been found, some of these old
>tapes had become so brittle that they did break when being read!!!

Yes, this is clearly a case of waiting too long.

The appropriate course of action in such a situation is to construct
one or more special tape transports designed to handle the tape
much more delicately than the original equipment did.  Slow-speed
transport that maintains most of the curvature of the tape on the
reel and non-contact sensing come immediately to mind.

Special needs call for special means.

-michael

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