19 Aug
1997
19 Aug
'97
4:51 a.m.
Nearly every system I have has been migrated toward
3.5" drives or up
scaled 5.25s where possible. Exceptions are the Vt180 where compatability
I've added 5.25" 1.2Mbyte drives to a number of 8" systems (mainly so I
can exchange disks with my PC), but I keep the 8" drive operational for a
number of reasons :
a) Most software kits for these machines come on 8" floppies
b) The disks are a lot more reliable. I've had a lot more 5.25" disks fail
than 8", and even more 3.5". I am talking about branded disks in correctly
maintained drives, BTW
c) The drives are easier to maintain. I've read the service manual for the
SA800 and SA850 and also the Teac FD55-GFR (a typical 5.25" drive) and I
know which I'd rather keep running.
The only other storage I keep around is the TU58
dectapeII as it's serial
and can be plugged into anything that can do RS232/423. At 256k a cart its
not big or fast.
Those are rather fun. One day I must write the programs to drive it from
my HP48 calculator...
Acutally, is there any Linux/Unix code to talk to the drive out there
anywhere (free..). It would be a reasonable way to transfer short programs
from a PC to a PDP11 not in the same building.
What I'd like to find out how to do is use the floppy interfaced tapes
for non-PC systems. These drives in the smaller storage sizes can be found
cheap and even new ones aren't too expensive.
Isn't there a QIC standard for that? Last time I looked, the QIC standards
were free (some were even on a web page), and it was legal to make copies
of them. Just about the only thing that was illegal was distributing
modified versions, which makes a lot of sense.
Allison
-tony