[rescue] Dumping SunOS tapes

[Dave McGuire]

On 09/08/2017 11:33 AM, Mouse wrote:
> All that said, if any belt supplier _can_ match them, I'm sure everyone
> trying to recover data from QIC tapes would be delighted.

  The cartridge drive belts are made in a somewhat unusual process in
which a disk of the plastic is cut from, I believe, a piece of tubing,
and then stretched between two heated rollers.  As far as I'm aware this
isn't how normal belts (like for pulleys) are made.

  Athana makes them, or at least they did.  I'm told that the gentleman
who ran Athana passed away recently, so I'm unsure of their future, but
they make/made those belts; if they're willing to sell them (even in
huge quantities) it would be worth pursuing.  That's been on my to-do
list for some time but I've not had a chance to talk with them about it.

             -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA