PDP-11/23 machine boots fine

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Fri Mar 24 21:57:54 2000

>Anyway, the machine works. I would like to format some floppies and get a
>restorable backup of the drive. The two floppies respond to DIR/Bad, and
>Init/Bad as devices DU1 and DU2:. But I get 'bad sector in system area'
>when I try to init. How do I low-level floppies?

Are your floppy drives RX33's or RX50's?

A RX50 is a two-drive-in-one unit, grey faceplate, two orange marks
showing you how to insert the bottom floppy in upside down. You can't
format a RX50 on your RQDX controller, you have to do it elsewhere. PUTR is
a common choice on a PC, get it at ftp.dbit.com.

A RX33 is a TEAC 5.25" HD disk drive. Put a 1.2Mbyte disk in, tell
it "FORMAT DU1:", and you'll have it formatted as a RX33. A RX33
can also read/write RX50's, but it can't format them on a DEC RQDX
controller.

Note that there are third-party Q-bus controllers that let you format RX50's,
and if you're running RT-11 5.7 you can use FORMAT/SINGLE on these
controllers to make RX50's.

-- 
 Tim Shoppa                        Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
 Trailing Edge Technology          WWW:   http://www.trailing-edge.com/
 7328 Bradley Blvd		   Voice: 301-767-5917
 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817           Fax:   301-767-5927
Received on Fri Mar 24 2000 - 21:57:54 GMT

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