On Sat, Apr 2, 2016 at 11:49 AM, Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > > On Apr 2, 2016, at 1:27 PM, Robert Jarratt <robert.jarr...@ntlworld.com> > wrote: > > > > I have been looking at my DECmate II recently. I got an Italian version > of > > WPS 1.0 for it and that works fine, except that I don't have an Italian > > keyboard so finding some of the characters is a bit tricky. :) > > ... > > Any recommendations for how best to image RX50 diskettes? I want to > preserve > > the diskettes I have. > > Are they the same format (80 tracks, 10 sectors, 512 bytes) as the RX50 on > PDP11s? If yes, you can either use a PDP11, or you can configure Linux to > 10 sector per track format and use dd. If the sector ordering is as > strange as on the PDP11, dd will get the data very much out of order, but > it should all be there. I can find the PDP11 interleave rules if you need > them. > They are similar to the PDP-11 layout, with special rules for tracks 0, 1 and 79 IIRC. So long as you are using a compatible floppy drive, you'll be able to read / write them. I've connected my RX-50 from my DEC Rainbow 100B to a PC controller in the past with some luck in reading writing the disks (raw mode only). I've also had good luck with the TEAC 55F. Other models, like ones in IBM PC AT and newer that do 1.2 MB have 'issues' creating readable RX-50 disks. DD certainly would be one way to image them. However, there's a caveat with that. DD will read the sectors labeled 1, 2, 3, ... 10 in that order. However, if you read the entire track off the disk you'll find they are stored in 1 6 2 7 3 8 4 9 5 10 order (again, IIRC, the order is different, but might not be this exactly). Back in the day, people (not me) reported success of duplicating via dd, only to find that the performance really sucked. My brain can't recall if this was on the PDP-11 / Professional formatted disks, or on the DECmate II disks. Wish I could be more helpful. Here's a link that has all the details that my brain is likely recalling wrong: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-8/docs/rx50faq.doc Warner