[Info-vax] Anyone interested in another public access system

[Bob Eager]

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:15:22 UTC, "Richard B. Gilbert" 
<rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Bob Eager wrote:
> > On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:22:46 UTC, "Richard B. Gilbert" 
> > <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > 
> >> Bob Eager wrote:
> >>> On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:22:48 UTC, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon)
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Note the percentage of fragmentation.  And, no, there are no de-frag
> >>>> programs for BSD Unix.  The question does come up from a windows weenie
> >>>> periodically in the BSD Newsgroups.
> >>> Remind me when DEC finally provided a defragmenter for VMS...! :-)
> >> Did DEC EVER provide a defragmenter?
> > 
> > Exactly...
> > 
> >> There is at least one but AFAIK it's user written freeware.  I first 
> >> encountered it ca. 1985-1986.  Before that, I had to do a full backup 
> >> and restore of an RA81.  AIRC it took fourteen tapes and eight to ten 
> >> hours.  The before and after comparison of system performance was amazing.
> > 
> > I kept a spare RA81 and did image copies...
> 
> ISTR that the RA81 cost $50K ca. 1984/5.  We got one with the system but 
> a second one was out of reach!

We had twelve of them.....bought in 1986. Used in a 3-VAX cluster 
(8800/8200/8200); well, I added my VS3100 later!

-- 
Bob Eager