Archiving RX50s with PUTR - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

lbickley＠bickleywest.com

16 May 16 May

5:38 p.m.

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"

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toby＠coreware.co.uk

11:29 a.m.

I've put up the microRSX-11 distribution floppies for anyone who is interested. They can be found here: http://www.pdp11.co.uk/2009/05/17/microrsx-11-rx50-distribution/ I've started to play with getting this up and running on simh. It seems to boot the install floppy ok, although it hung after I selected install

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from the menus. If anyone has better success, please let me know as I

would like to get this up and running. All the best, Toby On Sun, 2009-05-17 at 10:05 +0100, Tobias Russell wrote:

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Thanks for the advice. I had already started by the time I ready your reply so I have images for now, although it would be easy to go the extra step by mounting my images and extracting the individual files. I might have a hunt to see if there are any linux/unix utilities out there so I can automate exracting the individual files from RT-11 images. If anyone is interested, the fruits of my labours can be seen here: http://www.pdp11.co.uk/2009/05/17/rt-11-rx50-disk-images/ Quite a few of the files probably already exist in other archives but some of the stuff is probably new. I've not had a chance yet to look through the disks in detail but will annotate up the contents when I get a chance. I've just been given a set of microRSX 1.0 distribution RX50s so I will put those up next. Thanks, Toby On Sat, 2009-05-16 at 17:38 -0700, Lyle Bickley wrote:

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"

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jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

2 Jun 2 Jun

7:49 p.m.

I rarely top post, but this seems like a reasonable situation. I finally had a few minutes to look at a few of the 40 * RX50 disk images under RT-11. Most of the time was to look at the CACHE.DSK image which holds a set of files that I have never seen before. Based on the contents, it may take some time to sort out exactly what is needed, but this set certainly looks extremely promising. It is highly probable that at least a few of the other RX50 images hold other gems as well. If you have any other RX50 floppy media which you are going to make available, please let us know. I have sort of placed RT-11 into a lower priority than a few years ago, but something like this may rekindle my interest. Thank you very much and keep up the great effort. Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine

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Tobias Russell wrote:

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Thanks for the advice. I had already started by the time I ready your reply so I have images for now, although it would be easy to go the extra step by mounting my images and extracting the individual files. I might have a hunt to see if there are any linux/unix utilities out there so I can automate exracting the individual files from RT-11 images. If anyone is interested, the fruits of my labours can be seen here: http://www.pdp11.co.uk/2009/05/17/rt-11-rx50-disk-images/ Quite a few of the files probably already exist in other archives but some of the stuff is probably new. I've not had a chance yet to look through the disks in detail but will annotate up the contents when I get a chance. I've just been given a set of microRSX 1.0 distribution RX50s so I will put those up next. Thanks, Toby On Sat, 2009-05-16 at 17:38 -0700, Lyle Bickley wrote: >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 ;-) >

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