Re: Archiving Data Permanently

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On Monday 22 August 2005 11:19 am, Tim wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-08-18 at 22:13 -0400, Claude Jones wrote:
> > Even if it's stored properly, vertically, not horizontal on the spool,
> > in temperature and climate controlled conditions, there is a wide
> > disparity in tape longevity.
>
> I'd go further.  Some tapes are just chemically unstable.  Firstly,
> there's the obvious:  Those tapes that smell strong are releasing their
> contents into the air.  But what I was thinking about was the old
> open-reel video tapes I've got.  Many of them, while spending ages
> sitting wrapped up in their boxes, inside a plastic bag, have gone bad
> all by themselves.  If you try to play one, they stick in the tape path,
> and squeal as they're forced to move across heads and tape guides.
>

It's glue, plastic, and iron oxide - widely differing formulations of each 
ingredient - the quality/stability of the individual ingredients is one 
issue; how they do together over time is a separate issue. My experience has 
been the same regarding video tapes - even some of the most expensive reels 
with the biggest name-brands - oxide flaking is such a major problem with us, 
that we keep a couple of old decks around tor one-pass plays of older tapes - 
when we need to use an older tape, we play it once and dub it off to a newer 
digital format at the same time. If the old decks get hosed, they're 
considered expendable. I have had tapes that left such a gooey mess in the 
tape path that it was impossible to clean it all up. 
-- 
Claude Jones
Bluemont, VA, USA


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