In search of... DECtape drives

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com> writes:

 Tom> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
 >> Nope.  DECtape is 3/4 inch wide, 10 tracks, block oriented, random
 >> access.  It is nothing like anything else (except LincTape).  It's
 >> the world's first streaming tape, and also the most reliable tape
 >> ever made.

 Tom> ANd that last might not even be an exaggeration :-)

In college, we used DECtapes for the "open to all" file storage.  We
had more free space there than on disk...  For that application, we
actually managed to wear out tapes to the point that they became
unreadable, much to the surprise of an ex-DEC employee who came to
work at the college.  He had never heard of such a thing.

On the other hand, he or one of his friends once put some pants in the
laundry, only to discover afterwards that one of them had a DECtape in
the pocket.  That tape still worked just fine afterwards.

    paul