Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2014 01:05:54 -0500 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: PDP-8a Restoration/RL01 issues Message-ID: <CAALmimmGTKGksHJiqbo+TQV12pw2J7QEbEPZexc+bPCG+4-_Eg at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 8:37 PM, David Gesswein <djg at pdp8online.com> wrote: I don't remember any major foam issues, certainly nothing like the RK05. There is usually some coarse foam at the front of the drive, in front of the HEPA filter, but that's quickly removed and cleaned. The insides are foam-free IIRC. Lots of hard surfaces to wipe down for dust, though. I'd certainly do that, including swabbing the tubes behind the HEPA filter if the drive has been stored for a long time and you see dust in the pack area (less crud for the HEPA filter to suck up).

One does not require a PDP-8 and RL8A to back up an RL01 or RL02 pack. Any machine can make a block-for-block image copy. It's one command on VAX/VMS ($ BACKUP/PHYSICAL). If you have another system and interface, that might be easier than dealing with a medium that's 2.5 times the max size of an OS/8 device. -ethan