[Info-vax] MicroVAX/VMS newbie, couple of questions

[Steven Schweda]

Tone007 wrote:
> The system has a TK70 tape drive and one hard drive, and it is on the
> network via Ethernet.  Not sure if the tape drive is working or not,
> the orange LED flashes for a bit on power up but eventually all three
> LEDs begin flashing constantly and stay that way while the system is
> in operation.  I have no tapes to try the drive with unfortunately.

   Your idea of a hardware inventory seems to differ from
mine, but that's a start.  If the Ethernet card is a DEQNA
(M7504), then VMS support is gone in VMS V5.5 and up.  The
DELQA (M7516) is still ok.

   Flashing LEDs on a TK tape drive are a bad sign.

> Well, maybe it's just angry because it doesn't have a tape.

   Dreamer.

> I figured a newer OS would be the way to go, I guess I'll have to keep
> my eyes open.

   For what?  If you need some kind of storage medium other
than the system disk.  Tape, second hard disk, CD-ROM, another
VMS system -- something.