Replace roller rubber on HP 9825 tape drive

[Tony Duell]

>    I agreee but the problem is that a lot of us would like to recover the
> original HP software from the tapes since a lot of it virtually never

Agreed. Of course the belt failing is really a media issue, and is not 
strictly the same problem as being able to make a copy of the tape.

> appeared on anything but the tapes. In addition, the programs on tape could
> be "protected" and could not be copied. I know companies that run their
> entire operation off of such commercailly produced protected tapes and are
> willing to pay ANYTHING to keep them working since a failed tape will put
> them out of business.

Since the hardware details of the 9825, etc, tape drive and controller 
are known, it should be not too hard to link the bus interface side of 
that controller to another computer and read the tape at the bit level 
(rememebr the controller is a very simple device that does little to the 
bits coming off the tape). At which point it should be possible to copy 
_anything_.

Of course this depends on the tape being still readable...

-tony