Rescue of data from Pioneer 10 & 11 tapes at JPL needed. Vintagecomputers slated for demolition.

[Nico de Jong]

> > ... but I dont have the foggiest idea
> >whether the data is "decodeable". The best way to save the data, is to
get a
> >copy of the program which wrote the data in the first place. I have the
> >funny feeling that the data is written in _huge_ blocks.
> >

> Two things needed, a tape drive and something to interpret
> the data. Many times, important information about the
> data is external to the recorded data on the tape.
>
> Like pdf or zip files, I suspect that some pieces may
> be missing to recover the information. I doubt that
> the major issue is the obsolete computer.

I quite agree, in a broad sense. I'm presently doing some digging in files
coming from an 8" floppy originating from a CT Scanner. The data is
perfectly readable, but part of the data is compressed, and no details on
decompression are available. And the manufacturer cant/wont assist.

Anyway, the first thing to do is to copy things to a modern media; data
manipulation can be worried about later.

So, let's try to read a tape...

Nico