Magnetic Tape for Data | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)
Magnetic tape formats for data storage, including tape for mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers.
Contents
Open reel tapes
¾-inch wide tape
| English Electric LEO KDF9 tape (1963 – 1980) |  |
|---|---|
| DECtape (1964 – 1980s) |  |
½-inch wide tape
| IBM MT/ST (1964 – late 1970s) |  |
|---|---|
| 9-track tape (1964 – 2003) |  |
¼-inch wide tape
| InterDyne MicroReel (mid-1980s) |  |
|---|
Various widths
| Open reel instrumentation and data logging tape (1949 – 2000s)This can be 1-inch, ½-inch or ¼-inch wide |  |
|---|
Cartridge (single-reel)
3-inch wide tape
| IBM 3850 Mass Storage System (1974 – 1986) According to IBM, the tape was approximately 3-inches wide |  |
|---|
½-inch wide tape
| CompacTape (1984 – 1993) |  |
|---|---|
| IBM 3480 (1984 – 2004) |  |
| IBM 3490E (1991 – 2004) |  |
| Digital Linear Tape (DLT) (1993 – 2018) |  |
| IBM Magstar 3590 (1995 – 2006) |  |
| StorageTek 9940 (2000 – 2009) |  |
| Linear Tape-Open (LTO) (2000 – ) |  |
| Super DLT (2001 – 2018) |  |
| Super Advanced Intelligent Tape (SAIT) (2003 – 2010) |  |
| IBM 3592 (2003 – ) |  |
| StorageTek T10000 / T10000 T2 (2006 – ) |  |
¼-inch wide tape
| Tri-Data CartriFile (1968 – mid 1970s) |  |
|---|---|
| Milton Bradley Omni (1980 – early 1980s) |  |
| Mego 2-XL (1978 – 1981) |  |
Cassettes
¾-inch wide tape
| Sony D1D (1990 – 2012) |  |
|---|
½-inch wide tape
| Digital Tape Format (DTF) (1994 – 2004) |  |
|---|---|
| StorageTek 9840 (1998 – 2009) |  |
8 mm wide tape
| 8mm / Data8 (1987 – late 1990s) |  |
|---|---|
| Iomega Ditto (1992 – 1999)8 mm tape was used in many Ditto cartridges after 1994 including all Ditto Max and Max Pro |  |
| QIC-Wide (1994 – 2000s) |  |
| Travan (1995 – mid 2000s) |  |
| Mammoth (1996 – 1999) |  |
| QIC-EXtra (QIC EX) (1996 – early 2000s)8 mm tape was used in some QIC-EXtra cartridges |  |
| IBM Magstar MP 3570 (1996 – 2002) |  |
| Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) (1996 – 2010) |  |
| Scalable Linear Recording (SLR) (8 mm) (1997 – 2015) |  |
| Mammoth-2 (1999 – 2001) |  |
| Advanced Digital Recording (ADR) (1999 – 2003) |  |
| VXA (1999 – late 2000s) |  |
| DAT 160 / 320 (2007 – mid-2010s) |  |
¼-inch wide tape
| QIC Data Cartridge (1972 – 2000s) |  |
|---|---|
| QIC Minicartridge (late 1970s – late 1990s) |  |
| Scalable Linear Recording (SLR) (¼-inch) (1986 – 1997) |  |
| HP 9145A tape cartridge (1988 – early 1990s) |  |
| Iomega Ditto (1992 – 1999)¼-inch tape was also used in earlier Ditto cartridges |  |
| QIC-EXtra (QIC EX) (1996 – early 2000s)¼-inch tape was used in some QIC-EXtra cartridges | |
⅛-inch wide tape
| DC100 (1975 – 1987) |  |
|---|---|
| Compact Cassette (1975- late 1980s) |  |
| Commodore 8-bit cassette (1977 – 1994) |  |
| DECtape II (1978 – early 1980s) |  |
| Philips digital mini-cassette (1980 – mid 1980s) |  |
| HP 82176A Mini Data Cassette (1982 – mid 1980s) |  |
| Coleco Adam High Speed Digital Data Pack (1983 – 1985) |  |
| Streamer cassette (D/CAS) (late 1980s – late 1990s) |  |
| Digital Data Storage (DDS) (1989 – 2007) |  |
2.5 mm
| Datasonix Pereos (1994 – 2002) |  |
|---|
Stringy floppies (very narrow endless-loop tape)
| Exatron String Floppy (1978 – 1986) |  |
|---|---|
| ZX Microdrive (1983 – 1987) |  |
| Wafadrive (1984 – late 1980s) |  |