how to use the cassette taps to store data on it, thank you ?.

You will first need to purchase a tape backup machine. You cannot use ordinary cassette tapes and a tape recorder to backup files or programs.

Tape is analog recording and computers use digital.

I used tapes when I had a Commodore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 and it had a tape storage OS.

Tape is dead and you don't want to use it.

Just get a USB Thumb/Flash Drive (they are very common) and will be much better than a cassette recorder. Get several, they are not that expensive, especially the ones that are only a couple of Gigabytes. Very good for sneaker net transfers.

You should also be backing up your entire Mac. I recommended 3-2-1 backups

3 copies of your data (the original is the first copy)

2 different backup utilities to 2 different devices (protects against bugs in one of the backup utilities and device failures)

1 copy off-site (protects against theft and natural disasters)

QuickTimeKirk wrote:

Tape is analog recording and computers use digital.

I used tapes when I had a Commodore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 and it had a tape storage OS.

Tape is dead and you don't want to use it.

Ah, such memories. I remember them well. I had one like it, and as I teach my computer familiarization class, I tell them about them, and they look at me like I'm crazy.

I remember using cassettes with my Trash-80.

ChrisJ4203 wrote:

Ah, such memories. I remember them well. I had one like it, and as I teach my computer familiarization class, I tell them about them, and they look at me like I'm crazy.

Well that is most likely, because you "Are" 😉

But cassette tapes are a step up from the 80 column IBM punch cards I had to use 😊

Possible. Not cheap. Not easy.

Audio compact cassette data recording is still possible, but has not been commonly used in a quarter-century or so. To record on that format, you'll need to scrounge both hardware and software, much of which you'll either need to scrounge or write for yourself. Basically, you'll be learning a whole lot about digital to analog signal processing, and of course analog to digital processing, and about hooking all of this to an audio port or (maybe) to USB.

DAT (technically DDS) cartridge tapes are available for USB and various other I/O buses — based on a quick look, maybe US$900 or so for the drive, plus the cost of the cartridges — and those will require some OS X software that can access the USB device to record your backups. Used drives are cheaper. The command-line tar tool might work here, depending on how successfully the USB interface works. I don't know of any, off-hand. DAT (DDS) reliability isn't all that great — the cartridges aren't quite single use, but they don't last very long. This format has been retired, and newer generations of this format will not be available.

Next step up is DLT/SDLT/Ultrium/LTO, and those too are available — more expensive than DDS — and you'll need some add-on software for recording to those cartridges, commercial or maybe tar or possibly some open-source. The current-generation Ultrium/LTO devices are still fairly common in mid- and high-end computing, but are comparatively rare on OS X systems. ATTO has some options here.

There are some other tape formats and media.

Scrounging an old USB floppy drive will probably be easier, if this is computing nostalgia as might be inferred. Those are still available from various sources, and very inexpensive. Going price for these is US$10 to US$15 or so, plus the cost of the floppies.

I remember when I was working in manufacturing in 1970 after just graduating high school. I would have to provide information to the computer room, a large fully air conditioned room with large computer with tape reels on them along with walls, with several ladies sitting down at keypunch machines creating cards for the computers to keep up with inventory.

It is incredible how little these machines were able to do then, and what we take for granted on computers now.

Normal Casette take only will hold analog sounds similar to a dialup modem. They were common in historical TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack), Commodore, and early Mac machines. As such it's capacity is very limited to around 2mb at a maximum and then it will take 2 hours of the cassette playing the audio tape to load it. This technology was abandoned (primarily due to the lack of resilience of the medium - ie the tape will stretch over time, making it unusable) with the invention of floppy disc. Digital tape storage devices, (not a cassette tape, per se) I believe Sony introduced one a few years ago, to my knowledge, are not compatible with OS X as Sony did not develop drivers for the Apple platform.

Nobody liked waiting for those audio cassettes, and almost everybody got rid of them just as soon as floppies were available and affordable.

The only Apple computer I recall with audio cassettes was the Apple ][.

The toaster Mac systems I've used all had floppies for file interchange.

But here are some instructions, if you have an old MS-DOS box and an audio cassette player around.

Much more distinctive for that era was the sound of the Apple ][ floppy.

If you're interested in discussing old and legacy computing hardware, maybe connect and lurk on the #ClassicCmp classic computer channel on the irc.freenode.net IRC servers for a while, after installing an IRC client such as Colloquy on OS X, or via the freenode web chat interface. Activity on most IRC servers and channels varies (sometimes widely), and who knows where the discussions will go? (No, I'm not usually connected to #ClassicCmp.) There are also vintage computing and similar festivals held in various places.