Given a VMS machine with a floppy drive, though, you could put standalone backup, and the distribution stuff onto floppies with little problem. That pre-supposes somebody with a working VMS install who can write the floppies you need. I have a roommate who's got the VAXStation 3100 with the 3.5" floppy drive, and I think they're relatively common, though all the ones I have are without... so it's do-able. It would be much easier, though, for all concerned if you can plug something else into the VAX. A CD (provided it will do 512 byte blocks) is acceptable, as is a TK50, DDS-1, etc. You may have to find a strange scsi cable for the thing to use external SCSI devices. It's a 68-pin "honda" connector, but it's not wide SCSI, and normal wide SCSI connectors don't work. Expect to pay ~30 dollars US for the cable unless you get lucky. Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '