This thread and subject-matter, seems to me to be "much ado about nothing". Sorry. But there is so. much. chatter. about this Bernoulli drive and cartridge business, reasonable people can't keep their focus on *what the tasks are*, what is reasonable to do, and unreasonable to do, and by whom. This caught my attention, because I likely have a clue about this tech. http://www.retrotechnology.com/aux/iomega10.html Are these the 'droids you are looking for? Note: I'm in the process NOW of selling the drive. I may have some IBM controllers available. I'm not giving them away, this is stuff I sell. That's not exactly why I posted. So: what is all this chatter about, and what seems a plausible path forward? First: the propositions, as stated by Jeff Brace:

Someone donated two 10x10 Bernoulli drives to VCF. They are in unknown condition. She gave us the manual, a cable and one cartridge. She wants to donate the remaining cartridges, but would like to supervise the deletion of the data they have on them. So we need one in working condition first.

and:

It is payroll data that the couple used for their business for many years, so it is quite sensitive. First: this appears to be a legal contract over property and services. Not that I'm a lawyer. VCFed Incorporated may wish to examine these terms, as Dave McGuire pointed out, and see if the Corporation wishes to engage in such contracts with clients. Hint. Hint.

Second: how many carts is this about, anyways? Ebay price - by luck I happened to look recently - some tens of dollars each. Point being: why spin all our wheels, just over a few carts? And: *are there any in the VCFed Inventory already*? Just a thought. Related: "two 10X10 drives" is ambiguous. Is it one cabinet with two drives, as per my unit? That's my guess, and I show an example. Third: I see no "data recovery" in these terms, as suggested in the chatter. Just data security. So: let the client keep the carts, if they choose to destroy them, that would be sad. But that solves the problem, no. further. fuss. needed. That's my recommendation. If there are objections: 1) Google "who bells the cat?" Hint: it's about finding volunteers for difficult tasks. 2) Google "the lady who put salt in her coffee". Old-person alert - this is 19th century technology. It's about solving problems. 3) - if you think YOU can make this work, convince Jeff Brace and the corporation, and that you can execute on it. I won't touch that, myself. I don't make that offer. 4) - if you think more 10MB carts are important - buy some off eBay. Or donate $$$ to VCFed Inc and they can buy them. Myself: I'll consider it, depending on what becomes of this donation, and my own sale of my drive (if that's the drive in question). So here's my specific advice, since I'm posting so much already. Tell the donor: "Thank you for the donation of the drive equipment and the single disk cartridge. Unfortunately, we are not in the business of data destruction and deletion. And we will not be able to operate the drive anytime in the near future: our resources to restore and operate equipment are voluntary and limited; it needs a controller we would have to acquire. "So we are not able to satisfy your terms of assured data destruction; so we cannot accept your data cartridges. If we become aware of such services, we'll provide you with contact information as a courtesy, for your own considerations. Thank you again for helping us in our goals of preserving vintage computing technology." This solves all problems, with no additional resources of time, money, materials or performance by individuals or VCFed Inc.. And that is my contribution to the discussion. That, and a link to what I think may be similar tech. At some point soon in time, I may add IBM controller information to my Bernoulli Web page. That may be useful for information. If VCFed has some interest in items I have, they or their donors can contact me for prices. Those items are untested, as-is, without warranty or fitness for use. Regards, Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net