8" floppy project

From: Dave Mitton <dave_at_mitton.com>
Date: Wed Jul 28 23:53:59 2004

On 7/28/2004 12:00 PM -0500, cctech-request_at_classiccmp.org wrote:
>Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 22:46:49 -0500
>From: Doc Shipley <doc_at_mdrconsult.com>
>Subject: Re: 8" floppy project
>..

> And I need to be able to accurately copy a bootable RX02 diskette to
>a formatted blank.
>
> I'd *like* to be able to take a disk image of a floppy as a file, and
>to write that back out to floppy, but that's gravy.

         I wrote a set of FORTRAN programs that did that running on RSX-11.
I was archiving CP/M diskettes onto RL02s when I worked in TWO.

I could read the disks to a file and write multiple copies of CP-MUG
distribution diskettes for the New England Computer Society.

         I don't remember if I ported it to VMS. You needed to have PHYSIO
priviledge, and mount the drive FOREIGN, since FCS/RMS kept trying to
interpret the floppy as a DEC file system media. I don't remember if I
used QIOs or some other FORTRAN file construct.

         The programs weren't that hard to write, they did require a bit of
work to unmap the sector interleaving. They were CP/M standard
specific. I even wrote a program that would print a DIR from the image
file. I'm sure the programs been lost to time. The CP/M diskettes
however, I still have a large box of in the basement.

Dave.
Received on Wed Jul 28 2004 - 23:53:59 BST