Hey, I totally get the urgency. First, get that tape in a clean, dry place—no dust, no humidity. I’ll help you set up a three‑drive backup: one in a metal safe, one on an external HDD, and one on a flash drive, each color‑coded. Then we’ll run it through a high‑quality VHS capture deck that outputs raw D1 video, so we preserve the original bitrate and no compression. I’ll map the file names in my spreadsheet with codec version tags so you never lose track. Once we’ve got the file, we’ll back it up to tape again using a master reel so you have an analog safety net. Sound good?

Nice, let’s roll. First, lay the tape flat on a clean table, wrap it in a paper towel—no crumbs, no sweat. Then, place the whole thing in a plastic bag with a desiccant pack; that’s the dry part. For the capture deck, I recommend a D1 out with a 2.4 Gb/s line rate—no lossy codecs. Keep the deck in a quiet room, and let the tape run for 30 seconds before you start the capture, so it’s warmed up. Once you hit “record,” watch the green bars; you want a steady read with minimal dropouts. When the capture is done, label the file with the title, year, and “raw D1” in the filename. Now for the triple backup: put a copy on an external HDD, another on a sealed USB stick, and the third on a hard‑disk drive in the safe. Keep each in its color box—red for risk, yellow for warning, green for safe. Finally, double‑check the checksums on each copy and note them in my spreadsheet. That’s it. Your VHS will stay alive for the long haul.