[inforoots] Recovering data from old media (Was: "The digital Dark Age")

[dick w]

John C Green Jr wrote:

> [snip]...He tried to recover data from tapes that were over a decade
> old.  There was a mix of 200, 556, and 800 BPI.  As there
> were mostly 556 BPI he only did them.
>
> Results ...
> Trying to read directly: Total failure
> Cleaning with do-it-yourself tape cleaners available at the
> time: Mostly failure
> Sending out to commercial cleaners: Excellent results.
> [snip]...
>
> Regards,
> JC Green

As I understand it the significant problem with most magnetic tape is 
the binder (tapes without a binder, "metal evaporated", have other 
problems).  See, for example,

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/2what_wrong.html

dick w