🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <810300713snz@analyst.demon.co.uk>, john dove
<jdove@analyst.demon.co.uk> writes:
:Does anyone know how to read 5.25" floppies from a MicroVax 2 VAX/VMS
:using a PC under MS-Dos etc...
:
:Since I need to urgently access some old archieves and my VAX has died.
:
:Can anyone please help!  (respond via email please)

  Ask here, get an answer here.

  If the floppies are RX50 format (which was the most common floppy drive
  found on systems of the MicroVAX II vintage), you may be in for a rather
  interesting time as the read/write head width -- the data track width --
  is rather narrower than the read/write head width -- the data track width
  -- of the typical PC drive.   This is from memory, as the RX50 drive dates
  back to about 1984.

  It will likely be less trouble to find someone with an RX50 or compatible
  floppy on the system or to get the old VAX going again, and use Pathworks,
  tar, etc., for file transfer on some other common medium.  (I'd try for
  a transfer using an RX33.)

  The above completely ignores differences in file format and file structure.
  Native Files-11 ODS-1 and ODS-2 disk formats are not directly accessable
  from most PC systems, and these formats are not intended to be used for
  file exchange.

  If the need is sufficiently urgent, you may want to contact a service
  bureau or Digital's field service folks, and ask for assistance.  With
  access to an RX50 drive or compatible and a device better suited to the
  transfer, this isn't a big problem...

  ------------------------------ Opinionative -------------------------------
   Stephen Hoffman      OpenVMS Engineering      hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec.com
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