A few days ago when Carolyn found some cassette tapes that we hadn't cataloged and added to our iTunes database, the second thing that came to mind (after "oh, no, not more tapes!") was "Do we really need to get all of these into our database?"
But with a little idle time for the computer and enough for me to sort of supervise the computer's work, I went ahead and started. With the second tape I worked on, I happened to play back some of the recording we had done. It was horrible. Then I noticed that it hadn't even gotten through the entire tape before quitting. It was then I saw that the tape was wound around and around the capstan - the piece that connects to the motor or gear and provides the power to move the tape from one spool to the other.
Immediately turning the tape player off and then carefully pulling the tape from the capstan, I was able to get the tape back in the cassette although it had gotten badly mangled. I tried playing the tape to see how badly it was damaged. The one side wouldn't move. And how did I get one side to work all right? Well, it turned out it hadn't worked right, after all.
I tried the tape on another player. Same results. I slammed the tape on a flat surface like they tell you to do for Books on Tape. Still no go.
It was time for the big guns. Radio Shack sells a repair kit for cassette tapes. I happened to have one on hand. I literally had to bust open the old non-functioning cassette, place the tape from that cassette into the brand new shell from Radio Shack. Then it was just a matter of putting things back together so that I could recopy both sides of the newly rebuilt cassette.
Now I know why I'm spending time archiving these fussy tapes.
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