[TUHS] Several QD-600A Tapes from Bell Labs Circa Early 90s

segaloco via TUHS tuhs at tuhs.org
Thu May 29 05:58:27 AEST 2025


Hello everyone, I'm just putting feelers out for a potential data recovery
project that may have some UNIX history nuggets hiding somewhere.  I just closed
on this auction: https://www.ebay.com/itm/267254963191

After the link is an action for a set of 17 Sony QD-600A tapes featuring various
backups from at least one machine named Zeus.  The listing indicates they were
property of a former Western Electric engineer.  At least one tape has a label
indicating a full /usr backup.  My hope is that something downstream of the BTL
internal version of System V might be living amongst these tapes, but either way
I was wondering if anyone here with access to the correct tape drive would be
willing to assist with ripping these tapes?  I can also start hunting down a
drive but figured I'd ask around first.  I'm not currently spotting a drive on
eBay but have a few other places I can ask around.

Thanks for any input!

- Matt G.


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