Reading a VMS CD-ROM for SIMH under Windows?

From: Kevin Handy <kth_at_srv.net>
Date: Fri Feb 28 11:57:00 2003

Ethan Dicks wrote:

>I know exactly what to do under UNIX, but I'm attempting to help out
>someone else - I have the Montagar Hobbyist CD-ROM and I'm trying to
>create an ISO file to feed to SIMH. We have tried three different
>CD-ROM slurping programs from shareware.com and download.com, but
>no success. They seem to have heartburn because the disc is not
>mounted under Windows.
>
>Has anyone gone from CD-ROM to running VAX under Windows? How did
>you get files off the distro?
>
>
If you just need an ISO image for windows, but have a Linux box you
can copy it from, you can create it using the following Linux commands

    cat /dev/cdrom > vms.iso

or

    cp /dev/cdrom vms.iso

(Yes, it really is that simple) You can also use dd if you prefer.
Test the ISO against a version of simh under Linux before moving
it to windows (just to make sure there weren't any read errors during
the copy).

To do the same under windows, you will have to find whatever obscure
option a particular CD-ROM burner package has, and get everything
configured properly. It can be done, but is very specific to whatever
software you have.

I don't know if you can directly use the CD-ROM from within the
Windows simh, or are forced to use ISO's. Under Linux, it is trivial
to do either.
Received on Fri Feb 28 2003 - 11:57:00 GMT