June 1, 2007

9-Track Tape Drives Discontinued

Effective immediately, the NIH Data Center will no longer process any of the old round 9-track tapes. While the Titan system has never had any 9-track tapes in its tape library (the CA-1 Tape Management System), some customers did bring in foreign 9-track tapes from an outside location to be processed on Titan.

Beginning July 1, 2002, the NIH Data Center stopped providing 9-track scratch tapes because the last manufacturer discontinued production due to decreased demand. In recent years, only one application has used 9-track tapes. That application has now been updated to transfer the data via a more modern mechanism. Moreover, we recently discovered that we were no longer able to find parts to repair the 9-track tape drives. These events led to our decision to discontinue support of 9-track tapes.

Need help or have questions?

If you need help or have any questions regarding the tapes, please contact the NIH Help Desk at 301-496-HELP (301-496-4357), 866-319-4357 (toll free), or 301-496-8294 (TTY).