When O'Brien learnt of the tape loss, he was contacted by Guy Holmes from data recovery company SpectrumData, who offered to try and get hold of the information. Holmes has kept the tapes in a climate-controlled room since then, and it was only when he stumbled upon a 1960s IBM729 Mark 5 tape drive at the Australian Computer Museum Society that his company had the ability to unlock the information. The computer enthusiasts who run the Sydney-based group agreed to lend the almost archaic-looking recorder, which is in need of tender love and care, to Holmes. He jokes that a 1970s Toyota Corolla fan belt could be used to get the recorder up and running. "The drives are extremely rare, we don't know of any others that are still operating," said Holmes. "It's going to have to be a custom job to get it working again. It's certainly not simple, there's a lot of circuitry in there, it's old, it's not as clean as it should be and there's a lot of work to do." Holmes is hopeful of getting the tape recorder working again in January, and then he said it should only take a week to extract information that has been locked away since the early 1970s. Related Links: |
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