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

[Johnny Billquist]

The conversion program I have somewhere is just a plain C program, if I 
remember right. It just sucks the data bytes out of the image.
If noone else have it, I can start searching around where I might have 
placed it.

   Johnny

On 2017-07-08 21:03, Lee Gleason wrote:
>  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.

-- 
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