This story seems a little strange. I believe the IBM 729 Mark V writes standard 7-track (6 bits plus parity) 1/2 inch reel tape at 800 bpi. This isn't THAT hard to read.
For example, UCAR can read such tapes (and routinely does, apparently): http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/services/tapedrives.jsp Here's a firm in the UK that can read them: http://www.dpts.co.uk/Tapes.html Of course this data recovery project has to be considered across multiple risk factors. For example, moving the tapes across continents could be an issue. (Which is why it might be best to move a 7-track tape drive into Australia instead.) I tend to think restoration of an original 729 is a poor way to go about this recovery project. Data recovery firms generally have better equipment to recover fading bits from such tapes, bits that a restored 729 might not interpret correctly. (They might have fancy D/A converters and analysis tools.) But I'm not the expert here, so hopefully Sydney University and NASA know what they're doing. I do wonder, though. :-) There are more recent drive mechanisms that should be able to read 7-track 800 bpi. IBM 2400 series drives could (with the 7-track heads), for example. HP 7970 could read 7-track also, I believe. Anyone know how to contact them? :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
