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I have project where I have to try to load some old QIC80 tapes and see what's on them. I ordered some tape drives but they work only with Windows 95! Does anyone know about tape drive that reads QIC80 tapes and is recognized by Windows 2003 Server or even Windows XP?

I came across HPs T4000s tape drive but I'm not sure if it will read the QIC tapes. Can anybody confirm?

MatBanik
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  • Almost certainly your best bet would be to speak to some vendors and get a tape drive that they guarantee to work with XP or 2K3. I would be interested to know how these tapes have been stored and eventually how well they restored (idle curiosity). – user9517 Apr 09 '11 at 18:03
  • I was looking through HCL on Microsoft's website for XP and I found few drives. I also order older 233Mhz MX pentium windows 95 machine just in case. I will keep you posted. The tapes where in filing cabinet in dry dark environment, but it was warmer than I would have liked. I will keep you posted how they restored. There is about 100 of them. – MatBanik Apr 09 '11 at 23:57
  • Most of the tapes are restoring and the once that are not restore up to about 60% on average. – MatBanik Apr 27 '11 at 14:54
  • Thanks for getting back to us. That's handy information to know. – user9517 Apr 27 '11 at 15:01
  • So far out of 20 I restored, only 3 didn't restore completely. – MatBanik Apr 27 '11 at 15:08

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You could try out some older Linux distributions. The last Linux kernel that included the 'ftape' module (QIC80 support) was 2.6.19.

The ftape module

ftape patch for more recent kernels

Cheers

desasteralex
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