Re: Tape, was Single User

It appears that Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve@sohara.org> said:
>On 19 May 2022 20:49:51 -0000
>"John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> wrote:
>
>> The thing in the picture isn't paper tape, it's a 1/2" magnetic tape.
>> It looks relatively new, 1970s rather than 1950s so it is likely
>> recorded 9 bits across (8 plus parity) at a density of 1600 or 6250 BPI.
>
>	I didn't look at the picture. That could be a *lot* harder to read
>even if you have a drive. I've heard tell of tapes that could only be read
>once due to storage damage rendering them more than a little fragile.

I would be surprised if it were readable at all. After fifty years the
oxide can come unglued from the backing, and there is a lot of
magnetic print-through between adjacent layers of tape. It was common
knowledge that if you cared about your tape files, you needed to
recopy and verify them every so many years.