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

[Lee Gleason]

  I don't  have the capability to read teledisk images, and a brief google 
search showed the programs I saw available to do so all seem to run on Linux 
and DOS...two OSes I don't have available...


-----Original Message----- 
From: Tim Sneddon
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2017 10:51 AM
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE ; Lee Gleason
Subject: Re: [HECnet] DECmate II and OS/278...

On 8/07/2017 11:31 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> 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.

Yeah, I saw some details about the format described. I was only browsing
so I didn't notice a tool, but there were details of the file structure.

>
> 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.
>

I have genuine RX50 floppies that have been used in DECmate II and
PRO350 systems.  I believe they should be adequately formatted.

Regards, Tim.