13 May
2023
13 May
'23
5:33 p.m.
Hi!
Well, after a good bit of work I have finally gotten my Compaq XE4000 up
and running with Windows 98, the BIOS all set, a new battery, and of
course a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy that seems to be working.
I'd now like to start sucking the rare images I have here on RX50 into a
TD0 format which can be converted to a .IMG format which can then be
used on the mighty GoTek's to allow people to run such operating systems as:
Micro RSTS 2.1
Micro RSX (I forget the exact version)
Micro-11 Maint disks
Ultrix 11 Version 2.0 (all 30 disks)
Before I start popping these in I have a question: I just did a test
using an XXDP floppy and the message I got included
Single sided, double density
Interleave 1:1
Sector Size is 512
And then for each track from 1 to 82 (?) it said
"Data, No ID adding sector 110"
Is this right? Something else I might need to do for reading RX50's?
Thanks!
CZ
14 May
14 May
9:58 a.m.
On Sun, May 14, 2023, 7:47 AM Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Hi!
Well, after a good bit of work I have finally gotten my Compaq XE4000 up
and running with Windows 98, the BIOS all set, a new battery, and of
course a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy that seems to be working.
I'd avoid teledisk. I'd look at Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk. It produces
those img files directly. It's linked from
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/index.htm
I'd now like to start sucking the rare images I have here on RX50 into a
TD0 format which can be converted to a .IMG format
which can then be
used on the mighty GoTek's to allow people to run such operating systems
as:
Micro RSTS 2.1
Micro RSX (I forget the exact version)
Micro-11 Maint disks
Ultrix 11 Version 2.0 (all 30 disks)
Oh, these are interesting.
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx50/
Has some interesting goodies too, but none of these excrpt maybe yhe Micro
RSTS stuff. Maybe if you get them imaged, you could send them to Al.
If you are in Denver by chance, I'd be happy to help image these too.
Warner
Before I start popping these in I have a question: I just did a test
using an XXDP floppy and the message I got included
Single sided, double density
Interleave 1:1
Sector Size is 512
And then for each track from 1 to 82 (?) it said
"Data, No ID adding sector 110"
Is this right? Something else I might need to do for reading RX50's?
Thanks!
CZ
10:25 a.m.
Sounds good. Imagedisk however produces imd files, need to then convert to imd files with
the imdu /b command.
Cz
On May 14, 2023 9:58:31 AM EDT, Warner Losh via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On Sun, May 14, 2023, 7:47 AM Chris Zach via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Hi!
Well, after a good bit of work I have finally gotten my Compaq XE4000 up
and running with Windows 98, the BIOS all set, a new battery, and of
course a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy that seems to be working.
I'd avoid teledisk. I'd look at Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk. It produces
those img files directly. It's linked from
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/index.htm
I'd now like to start sucking the rare images I have here on RX50 into a
TD0 format which can be converted to a .IMG
format which can then be
used on the mighty GoTek's to allow people to run such operating systems
as:
Micro RSTS 2.1
Micro RSX (I forget the exact version)
Micro-11 Maint disks
Ultrix 11 Version 2.0 (all 30 disks)
Oh, these are interesting.
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx50/
Has some interesting goodies too, but none of these excrpt maybe yhe Micro
RSTS stuff. Maybe if you get them imaged, you could send them to Al.
If you are in Denver by chance, I'd be happy to help image these too.
Warner
Before I start popping these in I have a question: I just did a test
using an XXDP floppy and the message I got
included
Single sided, double density
Interleave 1:1
Sector Size is 512
And then for each track from 1 to 82 (?) it said
"Data, No ID adding sector 110"
Is this right? Something else I might need to do for reading RX50's?
Thanks!
> CZ
> 
12:12 p.m.
On 5/14/23 06:58, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
On Sun, May 14, 2023, 7:47 AM Chris Zach via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
ImageDisk may not be the answer either.
A problem that crops up if you're trying to run TeleDisk under a Windows
command prompt. That messes with the timing. TD is intended for use
under real-mode DOS. That is, if you're in windows, shut down to a DOS
command prompt. Do NOT assume that the Windows command prompt out of
the GUI will do the job. Or just boot MS-DOS.
There are certainly Linux programs that can also read RX50 floppies.
If you want a brute-force read every sector on an RX50 program, I can
pass that on to see if it works better for you. It knows the format of
an RX50 disk, so doesn't have to guess. I use it myself (the author of
TeleDisk), though increasingly, I'm relying on MCU-based solutions to
handle floppies.
I haven't touched TD since 1999, when we sold the rights to the program.
It blows my mind that it's in use 24 years after its last incarnation.
--Chuck
Hi!
Well, after a good bit of work I have finally gotten my Compaq XE4000 up
and running with Windows 98, the BIOS all set, a new battery, and of
course a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy that seems to be working.
I'd avoid teledisk. I'd look at Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk. It produces
those img files directly. It's linked from
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/index.htm
8:26 p.m.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I managed to put up the IMD (not the
IMG images as I am a bit too busy to convert) for MicroRSTS and MicroRSX
up on my web site at:
https://www.crystel.com/pdp/os
Give them a try on an emulator and see if they load up the OS properly.
Have to go back to work, so won't be able to fiddle with this more for
awhile. If they do work then I'll tackle the Ultrix and some other
things in the next week or two.
CZ
15 May
15 May
2:51 a.m.
Great work!
Can I ask you to snap a photo of each disk and store it along with the
IMD-files with the same name but a JPG extension? It greatly helps when
trying to use the disk-images to have this kind of meta information.
Thanks,
/Mattis
Den mån 15 maj 2023 kl 08:04 skrev Chris Zach via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>gt;:
Thanks everyone for the comments. I managed to put up
the IMD (not the
IMG images as I am a bit too busy to convert) for MicroRSTS and MicroRSX
up on my web site at:
https://www.crystel.com/pdp/os
Give them a try on an emulator and see if they load up the OS properly.
Have to go back to work, so won't be able to fiddle with this more for
awhile. If they do work then I'll tackle the Ultrix and some other
things in the next week or two.
CZ
16 May
16 May
11:16 p.m.
I’ll chip in my 5 cents and say that i’ve had good experiences with PUTR, a DOS based
utility can can read, write, and mount a lot of DEC formats. I quite successfully used it
to make myself a few bootable RX50 floppies for my 11/23.
Of course, YMMV, and you’ll need a DOS/9x machine to use it, but from my experiences, it’s
really quite powerful, and though i haven’t used it for disk imaging, i’m pretty sure it
supports that too.
Josh.
On May 14, 2023, at 5:12 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 5/14/23 06:58, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote:
On Sun, May 14, 2023, 7:47 AM Chris Zach via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
ImageDisk may not be the answer either.
A problem that crops up if you're trying to run TeleDisk under a Windows
command prompt. That messes with the timing. TD is intended for use
under real-mode DOS. That is, if you're in windows, shut down to a DOS
command prompt. Do NOT assume that the Windows command prompt out of
the GUI will do the job. Or just boot MS-DOS.
There are certainly Linux programs that can also read RX50 floppies.
If you want a brute-force read every sector on an RX50 program, I can
pass that on to see if it works better for you. It knows the format of
an RX50 disk, so doesn't have to guess. I use it myself (the author of
TeleDisk), though increasingly, I'm relying on MCU-based solutions to
handle floppies.
I haven't touched TD since 1999, when we sold the rights to the program.
It blows my mind that it's in use 24 years after its last incarnation.
--Chuck
Hi!
Well, after a good bit of work I have finally gotten my Compaq XE4000 up
and running with Windows 98, the BIOS all set, a new battery, and of
course a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy that seems to be working.
I'd avoid teledisk. I'd look at Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk. It produces
those img files directly. It's linked from
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/index.htm 
14 May
14 May
10:55 a.m.
On Sat, 13 May 2023, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
Hi!
Well, after a good bit of work I have finally gotten my Compaq XE4000 up and
running with Windows 98, the BIOS all set, a new battery, and of course a
1.2mb 5.25 floppy that seems to be working.
I'd now like to start sucking the rare images I have here on RX50 into a TD0
format which can be converted to a .IMG format which can then be used on the
mighty GoTek's to allow people to run such operating systems as:
Chris, you might want to find someone local to you with an AppleSauce -
it's going to do a much better job on those RX50's and will output
(simultaneously even!) IMG & IMD images.
It can also create amazing flux-level images (which also include literal
images of the cookie contents) that can then be output to IMG, IMD, etc.
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
1:24 p.m.
Try this RX50 reader under real-mode MSDOS:
https://icedrive.net/s/hNkxwzf61jfRai8jty6xRkbhxGFF
Writes a sector-by-sector no-frills image file.
--Chuck
435
days inactive
439
days old
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Chris Zach -
Christopher Zach
-
Chuck Guzis -
geneb -
Joshua Rice -
Mattis Lind -
Warner Losh