I recently encountered a “stuck” microdrive cartridge. I mean, it was working one minute, and suddenly, all I could get from my QL was “not found”, whatever that means. What it means is that the tape is inserted incorrectly and not moving. In my case, reinserting the tape did not help, so I started looking for some other problem. By placing my index finger on the roller on the left side and rotating it toward the cartridge handle, I found that the tape had jammed and would not move. It had a definite resistance to movement. Although you wouldn’t normally do this, a properly functioning tape would pull through freely.
I didn’t want to stretch the tape by pulling too hard, but the tape had all my most useful programs on it. I decided to take the cartridge apart to see if it could be salvaged.
The cartridge case consists of three parts. The grip, the top and the bottom. Inside the case are two rollers, a spring to hold the tape against the head, and the continuous-loop tape on a flat reel. If you ever have to repair a cartridge, just remember it’s likely that you will be at least partly sucessful salvaging your data. It’s also likely that parts of the tape won’t work again due to mechanical damage (wrinkles, stretching, etc.).
You’ll need a small jewelers screwdriver or knife blade and plenty of patience. Start by prying the grip away from the rest of the cartridge. Use the knife blade or screwdriver to pry up the edges all around the back side of the cartridge. Then insert the tip of the screwdriver in the slot at the right side of the handle and pry it out from the end a little. Work back and forth from left to right until it comes loose. Mine broke in the center where it was glued. A little damage here to the case is not critical, but remember, you’ll need to be able to put the cartridge back in a microdrive later.
Once the handle is off, (it won’t be reused and it could be carved or ground off if absolutely necessary), you need to split the case halves. Insert the screwdriver blade into the seam at one of the rear corners. If you slip and jam it far into the case, you may scratch the tape (or worse). Work carefully down both sides toward the front. The seam drops from top to bottom just in front of the write-protect tab. Work carefully here to avoid the tape as much as possible. Also, try not to use a magnetized screwdriver.
Carefully separate the halves of the case and try not to drop the tape reel. You would need more patience than anyone since biblical times to rewind one of these reels, but it could be done if you wanted it bad enough. Call me and I’ll tell you how, if you really want to try.
Now, if you’re lucky and the tape isn’t jammed too bad, all you have to do is tug on the tape where it comes out of the center of the reel to free the tape. Carefully reposition the tape in its guides and put the top back on the cartridge. Check for free movement and the worst is behind you.
If the tape is badly jammed, you have a couple of options. Either way, you’ll damage some tape. First, continuous loop tapes have some “slack” built in. This is required to let the tape transport properly. You can observe this in a properly wound tape as a slight looseness at the center of the hub, where the tape feeds out. Sometimes, the slack pulls out, tightening the center and resulting in looser winding on the outside of the reel. If it gets bad enough, the tape gets stuck. What you have to do is restore the slack to the center of the hub. If it’s only a little snug, you can probably fix it by just manually advancing the tape through several revolutions of the reel. Be sure the tape take-up doesn’t get twisted. If this won’t work, you have to cut the tape, pull out a couple inches (about 5 times around the center hub), splice the tape, and then manually advance the tape until the extra tape loop is taken up on the outside of the reel.
To splice, you need scotch tape, scissors or x-acto knife and a steady hand. Cut the tape diagonally to facilitate alignment later. (This is exactly like splicing any magnetic tape, or movie film, but the tape is very narrow.) I tape a piece of adhesive tape, face up, to the tabletop with more tape. This way it stays in one place and you don’t get your fingers on it so much. Lay one end of the recording tape on the adhesive tape and press down. Be sure the tape is not twisted. Then carefully align the other end of the diagonal cut and press down. You need to trim away the excess adhesive tape carefully using an X-acto knife. Take up the excess slack as above and reassemble the cartridge. There will be a rough spot at the splice that won’t be readable. Be sure that the copper spring that pushes the tape out against the head (yes, that’s what it is for) has not been misaligned, and adjust it if necessary by referring to a good cartridge.
Stick the damaged cartridge in a microdrive and get a directory listing. It may help to tape the halves together. The tape will probably rattle horribly, but hopefully, the directory will read, possibly after a few tries. If this works, then you have a good chance of recovering most of your files. There are utilities that will even recover files from tapes with corrupted directories. Use any available means to make a copy of everything you can on a new cartridge. Then, you can try for partial file recovery on any files that are corrupted, if you still need them.
