[HECnet] DECmate II and OS/278...

[Johnny Billquist]

Ah! Teledisk images.
Basically, that's a proprietary format which is intended to be able to 
restore the disk including the low level format. It's a bit difficult to 
deal with if you are not using Teledisk. I know I have a tool somewhere 
that can extract the actual data from such an image, which is what would 
be more useful when you are writing it on an actual RX50 drive. I 
believe I found it somewhere on the internet many moons ago, but 
hopefully others have it too.

In addition, RX50 drives in general only accept preformatted media, and 
RX50 low level format is unlike any other disk format, so you either 
need real RX50 floppies, or else some machine that is able to format 
RX50 floppies. Of DEC equipment, only the Rainbow were actually able to 
format RX50. Generic PCs can sometimes do it, if you have the right type 
of controller and drive, and appropriate floppies. But success with that 
have been a bit random when I've read about it. But I suspect it's your 
best chance, since getting genuine RX50 floppies nowadays is even harder.

	Johnny

On 2017-07-08 15:53, Tim Sneddon wrote:
> On 8/07/2017 6:15 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> You're probably closer than me anyway, Lee.
>>
>> Johnny
>>
>>
>> Lee Gleason <lee.gleason at comcast.net> skrev: (7 juli 2017 21:43:24 CEST)
>> > >        I've got some rx50s still in use. If Johnny can't do this 
>> for you I can
>> >     have a shot at it..
>>
> 
> Thanks, guys.  That is much appreciated.  Shipping is cheaper from 
> Australia to the US, so if you're good Lee, I'd like to go with you.
> 
> I've got a bunch of diskettes that I can ship to you.  The images are 
> all online here:
> 
>      https://goo.gl/BavuT6
> 
> I'm guessing that they are in Teledisk format (some sort of disk archive 
> tool that I am unfamiliar with).  Hopefully that is something that you 
> are able to work with.  Otherwise I might need to write something to 
> reformat them appropriately.
> 
> I'm not after all of them, so I'll send you a list of the ones I'm in 
> need of.
> 
> I really appreciate any and all help with this.
> 
> Regards, Tim.


-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol