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List:       classiccmp
Subject:    Re: Free (Seattle) - M4 Data 9-track drive
From:       Wolfgang Eichberger <oe5ewl () gmail ! com>
Date:       2011-04-30 13:27:57
Message-ID: BANLkTimF7mgSQQZswudcOAD8L0V0davzMg () mail ! gmail ! com
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sigh. i'm too far away. seems to be a nice gadget. anyone wants to get
rid of a 9track drive in austria/southern germany? i'd happily give
the drive a nice, warm and dry home.
--
Wolfgang Eichberger - OE5EWL
Operating System Collector
Blog: 5ewl.blogspot.com
Homepage: www.eichberger.org



2011/4/30 Josh Dersch <derschjo@mail.msu.edu>:
> I've got what I'm fairly sure is some model of M4-Data 9-track drive in a
> "desktop" enclosure, relabeled as an "Interface Data, Inc." drive.  It's
> similar, but not identical, to the 9914 for which there is documentation on
> Bitsavers.  It appears to do 1600 and 3200 BPI (not sure what encodings.)
>  It has a Differential SCSI interface option, along with a Pertec interface.
>  It's labeled on the back as "Model No. 9946."
>
> I have some pictures I took when I first got it (it hasn't changed much
> since then) at:
>
> http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/9-track/
>
> The tape transport seems to be working fine (it loads and unloads, moves to
> BOT and rewinds just as I'd expect.  The auto-loading procedure on these
> drives always seems magical to me...) but there's something wrong with the
> digital side of things.  I've made a few attempts over the past couple of
> years to use the Pertec interface (with the Diff SCSI interface removed) but
> all reads result in parity errors.  It may just be a configuration issue --
> there are tons of configurable settings via the front panel -- but I lack
> the documentation to know what they are (they are not the same as the 9914's
> as far as I can tell) or to do any other testing.
>
> Picked this up almost three years ago (time flies!) and it's just been
> taking up space.  Time to get it out of here.  Anyone want it?  It's free!
>  Pickup only in the Seattle area.  And if anyone in the Seattle area has a
> Pertec-interface 9-track drive they want to part with, let me know :).
>
> - Josh
>

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