[Info-vax] Anyone have a working DEC Rainbow PC200B?

[Bob Gezelter]

JCamCMKRNL wrote:
> Hello old friends,
>
> It's been a while since I have posted here, and I am back with another
> Legacy Computer issue. This time it is not for a PDP-11. Now for
> something a little more modern. A DEC Rainbow.
>
> I have two boxes of old DEC Rainbow backup 5.25" floppies that I need
> to get as much data off of as I can. Does anyone have any suggestions?
> I'm not sure what density they were written in, but it looks like they
> were written with something called an "IDRIVE", and no it is not like
> an iPod.
>
> Than you.
> Jeff

Jeff,

Most likely, they are RX-50 disks (formatted at 400KB).

The RX-50 drivers were used on all DEC systems of that era. However,
probably only Rainbows could read the disks if they were formatted for
MS-DOS.

Probably the best path would be to read them on a Rainbow, ZIP the
files, and KERMIT the ZIP archives to a platform that can burn a CD-
ROM/DVD.

I probably have a Rainbow or two lying around that is still
functional. Contact me offline if you wish.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com