Some has been written about how to link the two machines and
accomplish the transfer. I am wondering if the problem isn't more
hardware dependant. In this facility, we have not had a machine with an
operable 8" drive for many moons. Those systems were sent to the bone
yard 5+ years ago. We fortunately backed up all the data on mag tape
which we can still access. This primarily because of the insistance of
accounting and finance that we retain their records for all eternity.

Just speculating on a cold, rainy Friday morning.