dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o) (01/20/86)
x Is there any way to read or write an IBM PC 5 1/4" floppy with a DEC RX50 floppy drive (PDP-11 or MicrovaxII), or vice versa ? Perhaps the formats are hopelessly incompatible... Thanks. Cheers, Dan Ts'o Dept. Neurobiology Rockefeller Univ. 1230 York Ave. NY, NY 10021 212-570-7671 ...cmcl2!rna!dan rna!dan@cmcl2.arpa
paul@vcvax1.UUCP (paul) (01/20/86)
> Is there any way to read or write an IBM PC 5 1/4" floppy with > a DEC RX50 floppy drive (PDP-11 or MicrovaxII), or vice versa ? Perhaps > the formats are hopelessly incompatible... The DEC RX50 floppies are formatted very differently than the the IBM PC diskettesa. I don't believe that the RQDX controllers on the DEC PDP-11 or Microvax have the capability to read the PC format diskettes (I know the VENIX driver we provide for the Micro-11 doesn't do it). The closest you can come, I believe, is on the DEC Pro and Rainbow, which have the capability to read (but NOT write!) single-sided single-density PC diskettes. Device nodes are supplied on VENIX/Rainbow to read the diskettes; on VENIX/PRO, you have to build them by adding in 8 and 16 to the standard floppy minor device numbers, to handle 8 sector and 9 sectors PC diskettes, respectively. (This is an unsupported, undocumented feature on the Pro.) Paul Kleppner VenturCom, Inc.
kotter@muscat.UUCP (Rich Kotter) (01/22/86)
In article <167@vcvax1.UUCP> paul@vcvax1.UUCP (paul) writes: >> Is there any way to read or write an IBM PC 5 1/4" floppy with >> a DEC RX50 floppy drive (PDP-11 or MicrovaxII), or vice versa ? > >The closest you can come, I believe, is on the DEC Pro and Rainbow, >which have the capability to read (but NOT write!) single-sided >single-density PC diskettes. > I know that on the Rainbow you can both read and write to a diskette that has PREVIOUSLY been formatted single sided on the IBM PC. You cannot format the diskette on the Rainbow. Rich Kotter -- Rich Kotter decvax!decwrl!muscat!kotter
ccc@cwruecmp.UUCP (Case Computer Club) (01/23/86)
It IS possible to read an IBM-PC floppy on an RX-50 drive. Provided, of course, that it is a single-sided floppy. I have written a program for the PRO-350 which will read (but not write) these floppies. I'd be more than happy to send it to you if you're interested. Carl Fongheiser ...!decvax!cwruecmp!happy!cmf cmf%happy%case@CSnet-relay.ARPA