With any luck it may be possible to scrounge an RZ26 for a similar price to the machine. I've managed to crowbar a bootable subset of VMS 5.5-2 into 70MB. It was so long ago I don't remember if this included any Decwindows functionality. More recent versions with more fluff will probably need more. 500MB would certainly be worth a try though. Alternatively, use a disk larger than 1GB and hope for the best. You won't have lost anything if it doesn't work. When doing the install, just install the critical items first, with the hope of having everything that is accessed by the firmware ROMs for boot appear below the 1GB mark. Opt not to have a dumpfile. The biggest problem will probably making sure to get the index file (which is used to locate all the other files on the disk) below the 1GB mark. As far as I recall, VMS places the index file in the middle of the disk by default but this can be overridden when the disk is initialised. The only question is whether this option is available when doing an install from scratch. SHOW DEVICE at the >>> should list the devices on the SCSI bus. I don't think it will tell you if the sector size is correct though. The only way to be sure is to try it. As far as I know, CDs containing a bootable and usable version of VAX/VMS were not produced although they were for Alpha/VMS. A VAX would normally boot the standalone backup program from a CD to do a VMS installation rather than booting directly into VMS from the CD. The external SCSI connectors on a 3100 are rather strange. They are a narrow SCSI bus presented on a male 68pin connector. It is definately not wide SCSI even though it looks like it. To use it, the first thing you will need is a cable with a female 68pin connector on one end and a 50 pin centronics type connector (or something else reasonable) on the other. Are there connectors for internal SCSI disks? They should be normal 50pin IDC types. I just picked up an IBM labelled CD drive off the floor. It has a jumper at the back labelled "SECTOR SIZE". It's a fair bet that the two sizes available are 512 and 2048. If you find a drive with a sector size jumper, it will probably do. 1GB is more than adequate to install VAX/VMS. I remember 3100's used to often come with an RZ23 which I think was 109MB. This was generally regarded as too small to install a useful system on. I would have a go on anything bigger than 200MB. Not having to muck about probably involves spending a little to get an appropriate disk. On the other hand, having to muck about a bit may will give you the experience you are looking for. I'd suggest giving it a go with whatever you have. Recent versions of Decwindows are disk and memory hogs, especially on VAX. It is likely that it will be very slow. It may be wiser to concentrate on terminal based access initially at least. Regards, Peter Coghlan.