Imaging DEC uVAX MFM drives - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

29 Aug 2006

...

Subject: Re: Imaging DEC uVAX MFM drives
   From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>
   Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:55:48 -0700 (PDT)
     To: cctalk at classiccmp.org

  The RD53 is from uVAX II with a RQDX3. 
And this makes me think of something I don't think anyone has directly
warned you of.  Sort out everything with another drive than this.  *IF* it
will spin up, you want to get the data off of it without powering it back
down.  RD53's were unreliable 10-20 years ago, they can't have gotten any
better :^(

> The RD23 is from a uVAX I with a RQDX3. 
If the head stick problem hasn't happend it will be fine.

...
 RD23?  Assuming this isn't a typo, what on earth is
an RD23?

  (BTW, it also have a VAXstation 3100-m38 with
RZ(something) SCSI drive 
 which I successfully imaged on a PC with SCSI capabilities) 

SCSI is a whole differnt matter.  SCSI has better standardization as
the media itself is more isolated.

...
 <snip>

  Yep, I think Pat's idea to do a
diskless/network boot of NetBSD and then 
 image off from there is the way to go.  
Actually you might have another solution here.  Is the VAXstation 3100-m38
running VMS?  If it is, has TCP/IP, and the SCSI HD has enough free space,
simply net-boot VMS.  Though if you're more comfortable with Pat's idea,
it's probably the better solution. 
For certain if it has VMS it has DECnet, however LINUX and even PCs can 
support DECNET directly.

If the 3100 is running VMS it can netboot VMS to a target VAX system so 
long as there is a network between them.  Though Netbsd may be easier for 
those more familiar with Linux/unix.

Allison