Difference between revisions of "TK50 Image Archive"
| Line 25: | Line 25: | ||
|VAX FORTRAN V5.6 BIN TK50 | |VAX FORTRAN V5.6 BIN TK50 | ||
|[[Media:Aq-fp86n-bn_vax_fortran_v5.6_bin_tk50.tap.gz|Aq-fp86n-bn_vax_fortran_v5.6_bin_tk50.tap.gz]] | |[[Media:Aq-fp86n-bn_vax_fortran_v5.6_bin_tk50.tap.gz|Aq-fp86n-bn_vax_fortran_v5.6_bin_tk50.tap.gz]] | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | |AQ-FT37L-BE | ||
| + | |VMS/WS/SW V4.4 BIN TK50 | ||
| + | |[https://mega.co.nz/#!CQgClC7a!L79BFXpWqy2wb8ZKmNON7AxlUYpQFa5ssQ9BUtgsjuw Aq-ft37l-be_vms_ws_sw_v4.4_bin_tk50.tap.gz] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|AQ-FT73J-BN | |AQ-FT73J-BN | ||
Revision as of 08:07, 27 January 2013
The TK50 specification lists a design lifetime of 30 years for TK50 tapes. Some of the older tapes in my collection are starting to approach this age, so I think it's important to create a digital archive of these tapes before they become unreadable.
After some searching, I found some code to create tape images compatible with the SIMH emulator. This code successfully compiles on a CentOS 5.4 system, and works with an external SCSI TK50 drive, using the /dev/nst0 device. Using this code, I made the following images of my TK50 tape library. Several of these images have been tested with SIMH.
After the destruction of a tape, the TK50 became unreliable. Some searching turned up a TZ875-TA 5-slot tape changer, which is able to read TK50 tapes. This drive has proved much more reliable in making tape images.