Jerome Fine replies: When I first read your request, I was going to answer with one minor change. I would add the word: MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCH between only any slower. Especially for the TK50. In fact, the first and last time I tried a backup to the TK50 of a full RT-11 partition, it took about 19 minutes to write the partition. During the "VERIFY" portion, it was still going after an hour when I stopped it. A TK70 is much faster - actually reasonable - if you have the TK70 tapes which are identical to the TK50 tapes AFTER they have been bulk erased or never used. By the way, I though that TK50 came with a somewhat later version of RT-11, not with "V5.04 blank", but I could be mistaken. And try and use the TK70 before you assume it works with your version of RT-11 although it does work VERY well with V5.06 of RT-11. A word of advice. KEEP the floppy as your PRIMARY recovery drive with a minimum RT-11 system. Then use it to format the RD54 with ZRQC?? with XXDP as well as to recover files on the TK50/TK70. If necessary, put a long cable on the RX50 and keep it outside the BA23, but don't give it up. The TK50 may be a large capacity, but it is VERY slow. The TK70 is very acceptable, but probably not usable under "V5.04 blank" of RT-11. But in every case, making a bootable tape is not as useful as using BUP and backing up the files in large groups. If you want more information, please ask. By the way, why are you using RT-11? And to confirm the version, what are the dates on the distributed RT-11 monitors? Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine