It seems to be a little of both.

I have been in the "IBM computer" world for over 25-years and also know
about trimming leaders (ever do that for a 3850 MSS cartridge....I have
!).

I did trim the leader (about 1-2 inches) and reattached the end that was
torn off.  Unfortunately, the drive promptly spit the tape back out when
it tried to load it, so there is probably some other, internal
twisting/damage to the tape !  I didn't try pulling much out since I don't
have the magic tool that makes manual rewinding quick/faster and my
pocket-knife only works so good !

Thanks for the thoughts, anyway. Maybe I will try to disect the tape,
further in !

I don't think the data on this tape is very critical and they probably
won't miss it.




Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
09/09/2004 02:06 PM
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"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>


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Subject
Re: Recovering destroyed tape






On Sep 9, 2004, at 12:28 PM, Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU wrote:

> We recently had a tape eaten by one of our 3590 drives. ...

We don't know the nature of that damage, but it's worth reminding
3590 customers that tapes can sometimes be repaired, if the damage
was to the leading end of the tape: in this case, that end of the
tape can be trimmed and the leader block reattached.
If the tape was crumpled far in, it may be possible to smooth that
portion enough to make it safe to make a final-copy through a drive,
in the case where that is the only existent copy of valuable data, to
make the small risk well worthwhile.

    Richard Sims