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Nine-Track Tapes The Last Warning! (1Mar95) (from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 41, 1 March 1995) 15 April looms on the horizon! Not only is this the last day to file your income tax returns but it is also the last day for non-NOAO observers to reclaim any data that may be stored on nine-track tapes that are being held in the Central Computer Department tape archives! On 15 April, all nine-track tapes stored in the various tape cabinets and storage areas in the CCS department (including T-tapes used on the mountain) that belong to non-NOAO staff members will be recycled or discarded. There will be NO warnings or e-mail reminders! If you have any data stored at NOAO that you are concerned about please contact Jeannette Barnes (jbarnes@noao.edu) immediately so arrangements can be made for acquiring the data. We have no resources for copying tapes so please take this into consideration if you have data stored at NOAO that you need to preserve. On 15 April, CCS officially brings to an end the last phase of the backup service that it provided to the astronomical community through the nine-track tape media. As a reminder, on 15 August 1994, the nine-track T-tapes were discontinued as a backup medium on the mountain, and backup tapes in general are no longer held for visitors at the downtown offices. We can not stress enough to observers to make their own backup copies of their data - the safety of the data is the observer's responsibility! The "Save-the-Bits" project will continue to record raw data automatically at the telescopes for archival purposes, and will replace the functionality provided by the now-old nine-track tape technology. Jeannette Barnes, Bruce Bohannan, Steve Grandi
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