24 Feb
2009
24 Feb
'09
6:57 p.m.
Ian King wrote:
I've developed a procedure for this. It's a
bit roundabout but it uses easily available tools.
Tools needed:
- PDP-11 running RT-11, with an extra serial line (SLUx)
- DOS PC with a serial port
- PUTR program from John Wilson
- TU58 emulator, which I found through Will Kranz' website
At a high level the process looks like this:
Install TU58 per its README file. Copy the contents of the floppy onto the emulated TU58
using the COPY/DEVICE command in RT-11. Some versions will gripe at you about the fact
that the floppy may be bigger than the tape. RT-11 v4 seems perfectly happy with that,
and the TU58 program doesn't care. :-) IIRC there are prompts from RT-11 v5, but you
can provide answers that will direct it to do the full copy anyway.
Use PUTR to copy from that tape image onto... whatever you want! PUTR will let you
manipulate the individual files and copy them into DOS directories if you so choose. By
using COPY/DEVICE, you can preserve "bootability" of bootable disks, as well.
I've used the reverse of this process to create physical floppies from disk images as
well as to restore floppies after disk failures. Of course, if you want to burn either
the images or the individual files onto a CDROM, you'll have to have the files on a
machine that supports that device, has burner software, etc. But at that point,
they're just files in a DOS filesystem.
Jerome Fine replies:
While my approach is basically the same, it does rely on a SCSI host
adapter for
both the PDP-11 and the PC. Since I happen to have both (CQD 220/TM for
the PDP-11 and an Adaptec AHA 2940AU for the PC running W98SE) along
with a Sony SMO S-501 with a few optical media, the process for me was
quite simple. I also have access to E11 which is able to:
MOUNT DU0: SCSIn:
which allows me to access the RT-11 partition under RT-11.
(a) Either an RX01 or an RX02 floppy drive can read RX01 (SSSD media) on
the PDP-11. I use RT-11 to directly:
COPY/DEVICE/FILES DY0: DU0:foobar.DSK
Each of the 8 RT-11 partitions on the optical media can hold far more
than 20 RX01
file images of 498 blocks.
On the PC side run RT-11 under E11 after the E11 commands:
MOUNT DU0; SCSIn:
MOUNT DU1: C:pcfile.DSK
Then under RT-11:
COPY/DEVICE DU0: DU1:
After that, the easiest way is to use PUTR to:
MOUNT DU1: C:pcfile.DSK
COPY DU1:*.* C:*.*
and all of the RX01 file images are copied to the PC hard drive. It is
than an easy
step to use a CDROM burner program to copy the RX01 file images to a CD.
Under both PUTR and E11, any of the RX01 file images may be mounted. I know
that PUTR can understand the RT-11 file structure. Under E11, any PDP-11
operating system can be run to look at the RX01 file images.
Since my method depends on a host adapter on both the PDP-11 and the PC
along with a removable SCSI media drive, this will not be the method that
everyone can use.
If there are any questions, please ask.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
>-----Original Message-----
>From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
>bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jan-Benedict Glaw
>Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 11:37 AM
>To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>Subject: Re: Archiving 8" RT-11 floppies to CD-ROM?
>
>On Tue, 2009-02-24 13:14:06 -0500, David Betz <dbetz at xlisper.com>
>wrote:
>
>
>>I have a friend who has a number (10-20) of 8" RT-11 floppies he
>>
>>
>wants
>
>
>>to archive to CD-ROM or some other modern media. Is there anyone in
>>the Boston area (he lives in Medway) who could help with this? I
>>believe these are RX01 media since I think they were created on a
>>PDT-11/150 that I gave away to someone a few years ago. Can anyone
>>here help? What would the fee be for such a service?
>>
>>
>I obviously cannot help, but it would be nice if, once it is done,
>describe the procedure for others.
>
>Backup is one thing, restoring the image another. A third thing would
>be to use that image on some simulator...
>
>MfG, JBG
>
>--
> Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw at lug-owl.de +49-172-
>7608481
> Signature of:
>http://perl.plover.com/Questions.html
> the second :
>