On Tuesday 04 February 2003 11:51, barryc wrote: >This may sound like a dumb question, but wouldn't it be easier to > just use a bulk tape eraser (read: nicely powerful electromagnet) > to completely wipe the tape and then relable it?
Gaaachk!!!! Do that, and drop it in the dustbin as that tape will never, ever be recognized by a drive again. I tried that too, and when I had rigged a strong enough eraser to actually wipe the tape (that tape is quite 'hard' magneticly speaking, and the average audio cassette eraser won't "bither it a bot":), then the tape would be self ejecting when inserted into the drive. The drives (two different DDS2 drives) made multiple attempts to read it, taking several minutes, but in the end it gave up and ejected the tape. Presumably the tape could be reformatted at the factory in their special drives, but I know of no other way to rescue such an erased tape. [...] -- Cheers, Gene AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M Athlon1600XP@1400mhz 512M 99.22% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
