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Want to Remove Data from Tape

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I have several older Travan DT-1000 tape cartridges that have data on them. I want to remove the data before I give them away. Without the tape drive is there another way to remove the data without harming the tape itself. I remember years ago we used to remove data with a large magnet before disposing of reel to reel tapes.
Thanks
Bill

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by csmith

Most tape demagnetizers made for reel to reel have enough spare power (Safty Factor) that they can demagnetize (erase) DT-1000, despite the higher field strength required.
Regards, Chris

by gseery

This may not be the answer you want, but it does represent the policy I was taught, and have followed since.

We never passed on our old tapes, when we got rid of them we scrambled the data with a large magnet, and then physically removed the headers from the reels, making them much more difficult to recover.

I guess it boils down to what your companies security policy is, but we were always concerned about financial data becoming available, and this seemed the best route in order to not possibly comprimise ourselves.

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