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Archive Corp Model 2060E QIC-02

Take a careful look at the drive wheel--sometimes even a little divot can get to be very noisy.
The trick with the bands is not to overstretch them; I also wipe them with IPA before applying them--seems to get rid of some of the stickiness.
All in all, I hate QIC. :(
 
make sure the top is screwed back on tightly so the tape pack is even
pinch roller and drive wheel are also suspect if the drive ever stalled with the wheel spinning
 
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Chuck(G) said:
All in all, I hate QIC. :(
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I'm deep in a rewrite of tapecopy to handle bad block recovery better when reading them with a SCSI QIC drive under Linux.
I also still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong with Exabyte tapes to get them to read every variation of blocking and
density with them.
I have six 8505 drives. They are a nightmare to work on. I bought a 8505XL recently since i didn't have one, and one of the nylon gears was broken
so I had to take that one apart and a donor drive to get a gear.
I also have a bunch of 8500s and one good working 8500C, which is currently the workhorse
I'll be adding a bunch of pictures of their insides to bitsavers.
After getting CTSmonitor working, it is annoying to find out you can't back up firmware with it, only write new stuff
 
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Ooh, I found a new (to me) failure mode. I found another box of tapes in the house, and got set up to try to recover from them. I replaced the elastic band, reassembled the tape cartridge and then slapped that baby in the tape drive and started off with a retension, which seemed to go fine. Then I tried reading and it immediately failed. I tried again and the tape transport started making the rattling noise I had seen on one other tape from the first batch. I felt around, couldn't tell where it was coming from. Took that tape out, and inspected it. I noticed that there was a little concave divot on the wheel that the tension band goes around where the pinch roller touches, maybe a millimeter or two wide. I put that one aside, and tried the next one. It was only a 450ft tape, not the normal 600. Replaced the tension band, reassembled and tried that one. This time, the retension started but then the pitch of the spinning changed and I noticed the tape wasn't moving despite the motor running at what seemed like normal speed. So I stopped the tape and ejected it, and this time I noticed a somewhat bigger circularly concave divot in the same wheel, as if the tape had stalled and the pinch roller had eaten into it. That kind of explains the noises I have heard on the other cartridges. I wonder what's up? Something not so happy. Maybe the pinch wheel is dirty and not enough traction on the drive wheel or maybe it's too small and doesn't have enough pressure/grip.
 
russell-- said:
So I stopped the tape and ejected it, and this time I noticed a somewhat bigger circularly concave divot in the same wheel, as if the tape had stalled and the pinch roller had eaten into it. That kind of explains the noises I have heard on the other cartridges. I wonder what's up?
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The tape is stuck to the steel pins. You need to bake the tapes, and add something on the pins to keep it from sticking. I use a small strip of thin lint free cloth glued together to form a bearing around the pin.
I only do this to a few baseplates, then swap reels when doing multiple tapes.
 
That's a good reason to keep around a stock of old tapes. You can get the divot in the drive wheel carved out simply by having the tension band break and the tape become snarled up inside.
Have I mentioned that I really hate QIC tapes? :)
 
Chuck(G) said:
That's a good reason to keep around a stock of old tapes. You can get the divot in the drive wheel carved out simply by having the tension band break and the tape become snarled up inside.
Have I mentioned that I really hate QIC tapes? :)
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When you replace a tension band, don't leave any slack in the tape, make sure the tape turns freely, and do a drive retension to repack the tape before you try reading it.
 
Al Kossow said:
The tape is stuck to the steel pins. You need to bake the tapes, and add something on the pins to keep it from sticking. I use a small strip of thin lint free cloth glued together to form a bearing around the pin.
I only do this to a few baseplates, then swap reels when doing multiple tapes.
Click to expand...
This set of tapes was stored differently than the first batch. The first batch were kept in a basement that had a pretty stable temperature. The second batch were in a box on the second floor, which got hot in the summers (until we got AC about 2017). All of the first three tapes of the second batch had the same problem although I managed to save the drive wheel on the last one because by then I was paying attention. Your diagnosis seems very likely, given what I've seen. I'll need to look in to baking techniques. Any pointers there?
 
I made my own "oven", but keep in mind that air circulation is important as well as keeping the humidity down.
I think Al uses (or used) a food dehydrator. My setup uses a PID controller set to 58C, which seems to be pretty close to optimal for not damaging media.
I suspect that the audio folks at Tapeheads.net have a bunch of pointers also.
 
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