[rescue] bulk erasing DLT tapes (or, more specifically, NOT)

[Patrick Finnegan]

On Saturday 19 January 2008 09:28, Robert Darlington wrote:
> Hi Curt,
>
> I'm really not sure I understand what you're asking.  My old DLT
> drive will take most DLT tapes below 40/80 (or was it 35/70?).  As
> far as magically making them higher density, no.  There are physical
> differences between the cartridges and the media.

20, 35, and 40GB (uncompressed) DLT media is all the same.  You just 
need to be able to degauss the media and remove the old formatting.  I 
believe that the difference between DLT4000, 7000, and 8000 drives is 
just the number of tracks of data that they squeeze on the width of the 
tape (and thus head width).

As far as a degausser goes, we've got one that draws about 12A of 120V, 
and degausses DLT tapes in about 3-5 seconds per each side of the media 
(once on the top and once on the bottom).  Generally, if it doesn't 
degauss the tape in 10 or 20 seconds, it's probably not going to be 
effective at degaussing the media at all, in my experience.

Pat
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