>Geoff Reed wrote:
> > >On 10 Jun 2003, Barry Skidmore wrote:
> > > I am looking for blank disks to use in a DEC RX50 drive. I have seen
> > > posted several places that DD disks can be used, but so far my attempts
> > > to initialize Verbatim DS/DD disks under RT-11 have failed:
> > > "?DUP-F-Size function failed"
> >You can't format RX50's with any Dec PDP-11 hardware. You probably can
> >with a VAXstation 2000, or using a PC and the proper software - there's
> >instructions for doing it under Linux with a 1.2MB floppy drive and DSDD
> >disks on the web. If you want to I can probably find them.
> Get yourself a Dec-Rainbow to format them :) or the Pro380 IIRC will
> format RX-50's :)
Jerome Fine replies:
There is also a utility written by John Wilson which runs on a PC.
PUTR can be found at:
http://www.dbit.com/pub/putr/
Note that you MUST use a HD 1.2 MByte PC drive to do
a LLF (Low Level Format) on the floppies. IN ADDITION,
you must use DDDS 5 1/4" PC media which normally hold
360 KBytes, NOT the HD 5 1/4" PC media which hold 1.2 MBytes.
As far as I know, PUTR runs under DOS/W95/W98, not the
latter versions.
When using a real PDP-11. there are 3rd party controllers such
as the Dialog DM01 which will allow you to perform an LLF on
an RX50 floppy, but an RQDX1,2,3/RX50 pair on a real PDP-11
is unable to do the LLF. As it happens, the RQDX3/RX33 pair
on a real PDP-11 is able to do an LLF. The RX33 media are
identical to the HD 5 1/4" 1.2 MByte media on a PC. In addition,
the RX33 drive is a PC drive although at the moment, I forget
the name and model - which accounts for the built-in hardware
ability to do the LLF - although I presume that the RQDX3 also
has extra firmware to support the LLF as well.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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Received on Fri Jun 13 2003 - 08:20:01 BST