My basement flooded and I had a box of VHS video tapes on the floor. How can I salvage them? Are they totally ruin? Right now I have them standing on their corner points and air drying. Is there something I can do more to keep them from being ruined? Thanks,
Whatever you do DON'T try putting any of these tapes into your machine. I'm afraid that once they've been soaked, they're 99.99% sure to be unuseable ever again. If you put the tape in your machine you'll probably instantly leave oxide deposits on the heads, guides and rollers and so will damage your player/recorder Once tapes have got wet they're finished without highly specialised disassembly and drying techniques which you wont be able to do at home.
howtomendit.com for free repair help, information and advice.
Try fixfault.com to fix cassette recorders.