daffy@warwick.UUCP (Steve Hunt) (02/02/87)
Howdy folks, A friend of mine is the (proud?) owner of a DEC Rainbow micro with two 360k drives. But, as many of you are no doubt aware, DEC in their wisdom did not distribute a formatter with the machine -- so he is stuck at the moment with a very limited number of usable disks. Does anyone out there have a formatter, P.D. or otherwise free of cost, that we could get hold of? We might even (gasp) consider paying a small amount of money for a commercial product if that proves necessary! If you can help a poor frail Rainbow to live out its twilight years with lots of those nice, old-fashioned 5 inch disks, please mail me and we will discuss a way to do the transfer. Thanks in advance, Steve Hunt. -- "University computer centers are notorious for being run by empty-headed bozos." -- Henry Spencer. Steve Hunt, DONALD Programmer 1st Class Mail: daffy@warwick.UUCP sahunt@warwick.UUCP daffy@uk.ac.warwick.ubu Home: "The Silo", 15 Molesworth Avenue, Stoke Green, Coventry CV3 1BU, UK Tel: 0203 447765
campbell@maynard.UUCP (02/10/87)
In article <486@ubu.warwick.UUCP> daffy@ubu.UUCP (Steve Hunt) writes: > >A friend of mine is the (proud?) owner of a DEC Rainbow micro with >two 360k drives. But, as many of you are no doubt aware, DEC in their >wisdom did not distribute a formatter with the machine -- so he is >stuck at the moment with a very limited number of usable disks. 1. The drives are 400K, not 360K. 2. A formatter IS included with both operating systems (CP/M and MS-DOS) for the Rainbow. Admittedly, the first releases of CP/M and MS-DOS for the Rainbow omitted the formatter. But later releases, beginning about three years ago, included a formatter. If you are missing a formatter, you also have ancient and fairly crufty operating system software. The current version of MS-DOS for the Rainbow is 2.11. 2.05 is OK; 2.01 (what you have if you don't have the formatter) is garbage. There are various bootleg copies of 3.10 for the Rainbow floating around but it's not yet officially released by DEC. If you're still under DEC maintenance, you can get the latest OS free of charge. -- Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc. Internet: campbell@maynard.uucp 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109 uucp: {alliant,wjh12}!maynard!campbell +1 617 367 6846 ARPA: campbell%maynard.uucp@harvisr.harvard.edu MCI: LCAMPBELL
klr@hadron.UUCP (02/11/87)
In article <486@ubu.warwick.UUCP> daffy@ubu.UUCP (Steve Hunt) writes: >Howdy folks, > >A friend of mine is the (proud?) owner of a DEC Rainbow micro with >two 360k drives. But, as many of you are no doubt aware, DEC in their >wisdom did not distribute a formatter with the machine -- so he is >stuck at the moment with a very limited number of usable disks. > Every Rainbow I have ever owned (2 of em) has always come with a formatter for the floppies. If you are looking for a winchester formatter, call the The Pot of Gold FIDO at the number listed in the .signature. Old Rainbows never die, they just become FIDO BBS. Kurt Reisler ============================================================================ UNISIG Chairman, DECUS US Chapter | Hadron, Inc. ..{seismo|sundc|rlgvax|dtix|decuac}!hadron!klr | 9990 Lee Highway Sysop, Fido 109/74 The Bear's Den (703) 671-0598 | Suite 481 Sysop, Fido 109/483 The Pot of Gold (703) 359-6549 | Fairfax, VA 22030 ============================================================================