Can anyone help read some old DEC TK50 tapes for me?

[ProtoSD]

I have a dozen DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.) TK50 tapes in various formats (tar, cpio, dump, dd, ??) that I've had for awhile and would really like to try and copy off the contents before the tape drives become completely extinct. Some of them are personal, and others with Ultrix, OSF1, VAX/VMS. They should all be in good condition, and only used a handful of times.

Ideally it would be great if I could send 3 or 4 at a time and you could put them in the drive as needed and I could ssh in and see what I can pull off them, or you could make a dd or tar image and I could download that, whatever is easiest. I'm in southern California if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

-- Proto

 

[tingo]

I recommend the Vintage Computer Forums for tasks such as these. or the cctech mailing list.
Apologies if you know about those and have already tried them.

 

[ProtoSD]

I recommend the Vintage Computer Forums for tasks such as these. or the cctech mailing list.
Apologies if you know about those and have already tried them.

Thanks Torfinn, I already knew about the Vintage Computer Forums, that is a really great site! I just thought I'd check with our community here for now. I can probably find a refurbished drive for about $250, and I do have an old compatible SCSI controller, but I was looking for simpler and less expensive solutions first.