We used to use a Unisys A-11 with 3480 cartridge tapes for the most part but we also had a single 9" drive for old tapes. Just before they took the machine away in 1999 I found a tape from 1982 with the source code for a Pascal compiler. Although the tape was 17-18 years old it copied without any errors. We had some tapes which were in the 20-22 year old range and they still worked well.
I would also liked to have retrieved one of the drive motors from the older, vertical drives. These motors were very HIGH torque motors - ever notice how fast they could spin up a full reel? And reversible to boot! (Although, I do not know if they were 120v or 240v???)
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We used to use a Unisys A-11 with 3480 cartridge tapes for the most part but we also had a single 9" drive for old tapes. Just before they took the machine away in 1999 I found a tape from 1982 with the source code for a Pascal compiler. Although the tape was 17-18 years old it copied without any errors. We had some tapes which were in the 20-22 year old range and they still worked well. I would also liked to have retrieved one of the drive motors from the older, vertical drives. These motors were very HIGH torque motors - ever notice how fast they could spin up a full reel? And reversible to boot! (Although, I do not know if they were 120v or 240v???)