1/2" tape cleaners?

[John Lawson]

A possible suggestion:

"Streaming type" front loader 9 trk drives are a dime-a-dozen - there's a 
couple on the shlf at WierdStuff for $50 and that's about half too much - 
but there are plenty of the Cipher 880s, HP and M4 Data drives out there.

   From my meager knowledge of media rescue, restoration, etc:

  If the tape is moldy, the first thing would be to bake it dry, in a very 
slow oven, at about 120 - 140 F and no more, until all of the residual 
moisture has been driven off.  Maybe three or four hours, with the tape 
out of it's case, natch.

  Now, inspect the tape by hand, carefully unspooling it until you get to 
the affected portions. The mold should have been reduced to powder and 
spores by now. There are a few species of mold that secrete acidic 
compounds, and a smaller set of these can adversely affect the binders 
and/or the backing. Chck for discoloration, or degradation of the tape.

   If you can blow, or gently brush off, the mold residue, and the tape is 
left shiny and good-looking, then the next step would be to load it into 
an old tape machine and do a read-to-EOT and rewind.  This will naturally 
make a mess, and I have resorted to raising the top cover, defeating the 
interlocks, and fixing the hose of a vacuum cleaner near the saphire 
cleaning knife and headstack, to pull in all the Gunk.

   Obviously DON'T do this with a machine that needs to be maintained in a 
good running state, because it definitely get crap all over everything. If 
you vacuum it up while it's spooling, then you can avoid most of this.

   If the tape has been physically damaged, either by loose packing or if 
the mold or bacteria has eaten into the tape, then it can be cleaned with 
a cloth pad soaked in a mild soap solution and water...  many of the 
'green' cleaners, either mint or orange, are good for this.  You have to 
spool the tape from the reel, while passing it through the cleaning pad, 
(which you must check often and re-fold to present a new cleaning surface) 
and then just let it flow into a tub of clean water.  I have spooled tape 
out into a plastic garbage container full of about 20 gallons of tap 
water. [If your water is 'hard', like mine is where I live now, you have 
to be quick with the drying step afterward] NOW - you have to dry it while 
re-spooling it. I've used a hair dryer and one of those heat-guns for 
this.  It's very labor-intensive, especially rewinding the tape AND 
getting it to pack properly.

   If this process is successful, then you can place it on the machine and 
do the usual FF->EOT and rewind to retension it.

   Of course, the relative value of the data vs. the amount of pain and 
suffering you wish to subject yourself to, is a factor in deciding what to 
keep and what to chuck....


  Cheers

John