Toby,
On Saturday 16 May 2009, Tobias Russell wrote:
I have a large box of RX50 disks that I would like to
archive onto
modern media to ensure they are preserved. I've built up a machine with
a 5.25" floppy drive and install DOS and PUTR.
Is the best method to archive them to:
MOUNT B: /FOREIGN /RX50
followed by:
COPY/DEV/FILE B: [filename]
for each of the disks I insert?
I was pondering whether I should use the /BINARY flag on the copy, but
I've not seen this mentioned on other webpages I have read.
Since PUTR "understands" multiple filetypes, I have found it is much better to
save the contents of each floppy (RX50) to a separate directory - but NOT as an
image file, but rather as individual files. That way you can later use PUTR to
create logical media of any form - say RL02, RX01, etc. from the captured
files.
Assuming drive "B:" is your 5.25" drive, and the OS is RT11 you would do
the
following:
MOUNT B: /RT11 /RX50
then
COPY B:*.* .
and you will have captured the individual files that were on the RX50.
When you reverse the process to recreate a diskette (RX50, RX23, RX01, etc.) be
sure to use a SET B: type; i.e., SET B: RX23
then
FORMAT B: /RT11 /RX23 (or whatever)
then
COPY *.* B:
NOTE: Be absolutely sure to SET COPY BINARY before you do anything. For some
unknown reason, the PUTR default is ASCII. (I have a SET COPY BINARY in PUTR's
initialization file - to be sure I never forget to do it ;-)
Cheers,
Lyle
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are were God is dividing by zero"