I had two 7 track TU10 drives , different customers, on contract while working at DEC. Both where used in CAD systems. I have no idea how many where in the branch, but at our site maybe 20 to 30 % 7 track. I would think the national average is lower.
A 9 can be converted to a 7 with a head change and I thing a board change or removal. The only differences are the head and R/W circuitry I think. I know I have TE16 and other heads, and I recall having a TU10 7 track here somewhere. The first drive on the controller has to be a master, all the rest can be slaves. Paul On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 6:42 PM, Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net> wrote: > > > On Sep 19, 2016, at 12:34 PM, Noel Chiappa <j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> > wrote: > > > > So what do people think the (monetary) value of a 7-track TU10 master > drive > > is? I have no idea what these older vacuum-column drives are worth - > don't > > recall ever seeing on for sale. This one is in good condition, and has > all its > > Flip Chips. The 7-track is a plus in some ways (rarer), and negative in > > others (can't read old 9-track tapes, which are probably more common than > > 7-track). > > I don't know either, but I can say this much: > > 7 track tape drives are quite rare. 7 track data is not all that common > either, but it shows up from time to time. There are plenty of 9 track > tapes out there; the ability to reach 9 track media is not at risk. But > for 7 tracks, it might well be. In other words, it would be a very good > idea to see this drive preserved. > > Along those lines, a project I'm working on has turned up a number of 7 > track tapes, possibly 556 bpi though that is not entirely clear. They are > in Europe, where searches for working 7 track setups have come up empty. > Can anyone offer pointers? Will it take shipping the media to another > continent to get the data preserved? > > paul > > >
