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

[glenn everhart]

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
Can't say much but if they used the format that used to be on rx50, 
there was
a driver that let the old ibm at drive (1.2 mb) read/write such. May be 
possible
to find a copy of the software.
The hardware is another matter; it's been ages...

However any modern pc that still has a floppy controller probably can run
the beast if you can get a drive. Electrically etc. they were 
compatible, used same controllers. The speciasl rx50 driver might have 
been on an old sigtape sometime too; at one point I recall making such 
things available just so people could communicate.

There is also some oddball controller for reading and writing old Amiga 
disks that allegedly works with lots of formats, plugs into newer 
hardware. Don't recall specifics but a search engine might help.
glenn everhart