Backing up TK50s (was: VMS 6.2 or older install media needed.)

A timely discussion... Last week I received a total 4 TK50 drives, and a box containing 15 TK50 cartridge tapes. Of the four drives, one is a 1/2 height SCSI drive that is contained in a "low flat" DEC box (like the Microvax 3100). The other three are full-height TK50s, one of which is installed in a "cubish" (like the MicroVAX-2000) DEC box with a SCSI controller. The box is labled "TK50Z". I do know that this last drive was used quite recently. Of the 15 tapes, 8 of them appear to be original distribution media, and are "factory labled": AQ-FP13C-BN 03-Mar-87 MICROVMS V4.4 FULL BIN TK50 (C) 1986 DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. AQ-FY80B-BN 03-Mar-87 MICROVMS V4.4 BIN TK50 MANDATORY UPD (C) 1986 DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. AQ-JG62A-BN 03-Mar-87 MICROVMS V4.5 BIN TK50 (C) 1986 DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. AQ-FP59C-BN 31-Mar-87 VMS LIC KEY BIN TK50 (C) 1986 DIGITAL EQUIP CORP. AQ-FP86J-BN W0035602 VAX FORTRAN 5.2 BIN TK50 FORT052,DEBUGMP050 (C) 1989 DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. AQ-FP86E-BN 18-Feb-87 VAX FORTRAN 4.6 BIN TK50 FORT046 FORT (C) 1987 DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. WIN/TCP Release 3.1 For MicroVAX VMS Computers License # 9074-IP _______ SID # ____________________ VD9962003 REV E uVAX TS11 DRIVER (C)1986 EMULEX The remaining tapes are mostly unlabled, although there are a few with handwritten labels: PSCA_E07042 Pathworks V4.2 Patch VAX/VMS 5.4-1 S/A BACKUP VMS V4.6 Q's: 1) Are any these titles already backed up somewhere? Are they worth backing up? (I assume everything requires licenses - I don't have the machine the VMS LIC tape was issued for). 2) What is the best way to backup these tapes to a more permanent media? Can they be read into binary files, and if so, can anything be done with those files? Presumably, as long as the tape blocks were archived, one could write a SCSI tape emulator if one really had to - or does such a thing already exist?) I have available: - Vaxstation 4000 VLC running VMS 5.5 - Vaxserver 3100 running OpenVMS 7.2 - Vaxstation 3100 running NetBSD All have SCSI ports. I relatively green at VMS from a system administration viewpoint (used it as a user lots in years gone by). I've never mounted or used tapes, but with a bit of guidance I'm willing to try and recover these if anyone has interest in their content. 3) What is "MICROVMS" - Is this just VMS (for a uVAX)? Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html