8 Jul
2017
8 Jul
'17
9:03 p.m.
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.