On Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 5:15 PM, jim stephens via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> > > On 9/14/2017 3:51 PM, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: > >> As you might tell from this thread, floppies, reading >> them, and their formatting stir way too much passion in me (for which if >> it >> was too much I apologize).... >> >> Warner >> > Really fantastic timing for what a friend and I are doing. On the topic > of your reading, can you or have you shared the images, details? > I've shared the images of the Venix disks, as well as a copy of Jeff Anderson's rbimg program. Though DISKCOPY does a decent job if you don't need to retry for errors a lot and are going from disk to disk instead of from disk to file. > I currently am positioned behind the starting line, having collected on > spec a mass of all these systems and RX-50s. And my buddy has a bunch > too. Ultimately I want to use these with the PDP11s mostly, and will part > with spare Rainbows. > OK. If you want to image (read) the diskettes, I recommend getting a TEAC FDC-55GFR or similar drive and using kyroflux (https://www.kryoflux.com/) to do the deed. That's what I did for my bulk collection of floppies. Other drives work, as you can see on the kyroflux web site, I did use a variation of rbimg to read the Venix disks on my rainbow, then kermit them up to my FreeBSD server... > I have the 11/73, Microvax, Decmate, Rainbow, and Pros I would like to > reconstitute media for. What my friend has for now is not candidate > material as it needs to be imaged and saved as well, he has very little > "scratch" media candidates. > > Only "free" media as I posted earlier is third party pre-formatted media, > and formatting it ourselves on IBM At's then reconstituting it elsewhere. > I have none of the systems Fred posted, or much interest in getting them, > so hopefully a path to getting this media type exists w/o more rare or > oddball systems. > I've never had any luck formatting on the IBM AT or newer 5.25" drives then reading on the Rainbow. Others apparently have had better luck, but my luck has been terrible. If you have a running Rainbow and want to use the media for other DEC gear of that era, you're better off using it to format the media. You might even be able to use the DISKCOPY program to duplicate the disks w/o RBIMG (it's good for reading disks to a file on a hard disk). I've had good luck with old "new stock" from ebay, even the 48TPI stuff. Avoid the HD media like the plague, it will not work well at all for what you want to do. I paid like $10 per box of 10 (plus way too much shipping) for mine and they've worked out OK. 96TPI are better, if you can find them, but only if they are quad density, not high density. When I was looking, they were too pricy so I took my chances with the 48TPI ones. It all depends on what you're objectives are... Warner
