Didn't tape for computing stop being used in the 1990's?
Ha ha! Roughly 1980.
My dad used to write computer manuals in the 60's.
He would talk about what a big deal it was when they stopped using "tapes" to record data.
It was "nice" to not use reel to real back then.
Lois Lerner perhaps hasn't heard the terms "disc drives", or "servers" or "mainframes".
Jeez. I WISH the IRS "didn't know" what my tax returns were for the past 40 years.
Guess I'm due for a substantial refund, plus interest.
Lost the data? Oh, so sorry.
Sucks to be the IRS, huh?
Go back and check the "tapes".
Even better, check the punch cards.
That I do not know.
We had a large database that we made our own backups for, around that time. The tape system was highly reliable . Never had a problem with the backups. Also, only one crash, and the data was quickly restored.