Continuing with my data-recovery-from-old-tapes project, I have moved on from the DDS1/DDS3 4mm to QIC. I tried plugging in my old DC600A drive, which I think was purchased new in about 1989, and it let out some magic smoke after making an initial attempt to turn motors. I have disemboweled the external enclosure to get a look at the power supply, which sits above the drive. I didn't see any obvious damage. I tried bypassing it with a 2A supply (on each of the 12V and 5V rails) into the 4-pin molex connector, and that gives me a brief on/off on the front LED, but no sounds. Maybe the drive needs more current than my little supply has in it. I tried measuring the no-load voltages on the original power supply, but only saw <1V on each rail, though maybe it isn't starting without a load. I foresee a need to take it apart further. I might need a more robust power supply, or maybe the problem exists downstream of the power supply. I looked for gummy rubber, and it looked okay.
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Archive Corp Model 2060E QIC-02
- Thread starter russell--
- Start date
Hmm. Decanted the drive, no obvious damage. It actually seems to move. On a CD-ROM install (from a few years ago) of Debian 3 with a 2.4.18 kernel (before the tpqic02 kernel driver was removed), after a:
and trying to run some simple mt command, like:
I get messages that indicate unhappiness:
I left all the jumpers where I found them. IRQ 3 and DMA1 seem to be the default. I'm less clear the port address is sensible (all of the address bit jumpers are on, which i understand indicates zeros, so b1000000000 or 0x200).
booboo
Experienced Member
Before putting tapes in, I suggest you inspect the drive mechanism. On older drives the rubber rollers that move the tape can (and will) start to break down. They may be melted, hard as a rock, or brittle and flake off.
At the end of my initial post, I said "I looked for gummy rubber, and it looked okay." Further and closer inspection indicates the rollers are okay, at least for now.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
What's the system you're running this on? Systems chipsets much later than the 440BX often don't support DMA correctly.
Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
archive pinch rollers have been known to melt once the shaft has heated up with use
you've been warned
the only QIC drive I trust are the ones made by Tandberg
It's one of these: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p-i-p55t2p4 (although mine is a rev3) with an AMD-K5 PR166.
Noted!
This is the one I have. If it can make it through reading a dozen tapes, it has done its job.
Well, that was interesting! Reading SYTOS tapes with dd didn't work. Reading tar files with dd bs=10240 did work ... enough. My earlier failures were because I had guessed wrong on the density. This is a 60MB tape drive, which makes sense given the model name. So, using the correct minor character device number on the drive allowed it to work. I also rediscovered it is a serpentine drive, reading a single track on each pass, reversing and then reading another track back in the other direction. It took about 10 minutes to read the whole 60MB. The other thing I discovered is that while the Archive Model 560 tape cartridges had working tension belts, the 3M DC 6150 (also 600ft) did not, and I managed to make a nice nest of some tape on one of the spindles. No huge loss, since it was a duplicate set of the same data as on the Model 560 tapes that worked fine. Next step is to see if I can't set up a DOS environment with SYTOS and see if I can recover the SYTOS tapes. The drive itself seems to work fine. The pinch roller seems to still be in passable condition. I did wipe down the head with isopropyl alcohol to try to clean it somewhere along the way.
Also, I am open to suggestions for what to do about the malfunctioning tension belts, since that might become a bigger issue with the next phase as well. Is it possible to buy something "new" to install, as that would be my preference over trying to recondition them somehow (assuming they are still intact).
Edit: Ooh, I found this:
Also, I am open to suggestions for what to do about the malfunctioning tension belts, since that might become a bigger issue with the next phase as well. Is it possible to buy something "new" to install, as that would be my preference over trying to recondition them somehow (assuming they are still intact).
Edit: Ooh, I found this:
Last edited:
Disassembling the "bad" tapes, one of the tension belts "seems fine". That is, it's intact, and I was able to manually re-wind the tape onto the spindles and get the tape approximately retensioned. A few more tries and I might actually get it to retension successfully in the drive (there still seems to be some slack somewhere that starts ballooning, and there is some tape crinkle where it got wrapped in a moderate-if-untangleable knot. The second "nested" cartridge actually had a broken tension belt, although I seem to have avoided any crinkling of the tape. Again, if the cartridges are toast, no biggie, as I have the data already. This is more experimental before I try tackling the oldest SYTOS tapes with arguably the most interesting (to me) historical data.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Now you know why Al and I just love working with QIC carts. For the small minicarts (DC2000-sized), I use Mobilon TPU belts. For the larger (DC300-sized) I've posted on a Chinese substitute. Both are adequate.
Even a loose belt can precipitate a rat's nest.
Even a loose belt can precipitate a rat's nest.
Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
and why every time this comes up watching people make the same mistakes over and over again.
the web has made an absolute mess of preserving knowledge of how things are done.
these discussions have come up for literally decades and no one ever learns
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Yup. 
Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
This makes me SO angry
Forgotten Machines has a web page and discord
Tension Bands
QIC Tension Band "Drive Belt" Replacement Examples These belts are made out of Polyurathane, and dry out over time, becoming very britt...
qicreader.blogspot.com
But the top Google search results are are Ewe Toob, because they make money off that
along with forcing you to turn off add blockers.
Duck Duck Go results were completely different pointing to the web page
This will only get worse as robo-parrots enshitify more and more web sites.
It may be time to create a curated list of verified ccmp fact sources
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Ah, don't bother, Al. You'll just get frustrated. Hire yourself out as an "influencer" instead.
I haven't found a link to these yet.
Yes, that's undoubtedly what happened in the case of the tension band that wasn't actually broken. I found CuriousMarc's name "tape salad" rather amusing. No data was lost in the production of this anecdote.
Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
Tension Bands
QIC Tension Band "Drive Belt" Replacement Examples These belts are made out of Polyurathane, and dry out over time, becoming very britt...
qicreader.blogspot.com