tk50's and dlt

[Andrew K. Bressen]

Hi--

I've got a pile of tk50's I'd like to preserve
the contents of. Maybe 300 or so. 

what's the fastest drive for reading them?

I have a qbus tk70, and probably a tkz-50 somewhere,
but if it could read them faster, I'd be perfectly
willing to acquire a tz30 or a dlt. Surplus dlt stackers
like a tz887 are pretty cheap these days; could one
of those do the job?

format wise, many of the tapes are vms sw install kits.

is there a way (ie, existing sw and formats) to archive 
these such that new install tapes could be cut without needing 
a vms system to do it?

  --t.i.a.
  --akb