[Info-vax] Attaching an actual 3.5" floppy drive to SIMH-VAX RXV21 device?

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <28c27823-e958-41f1-b6c8-fc4e9de478ab at r2g2000pbn.googlegroups.com>,
	Steven Schweda <sms.antinode at gmail.com> writes:
>> >    For a hint:
>>
>> >      http://antinode.info/dec/vs3100_diag.html
>>
>> I saw ST506 and RX-50 and RX-33 mentioned there but nothing even
>> resembling a 3.5" disk.
> 
>    Look again?

OK, got it.  Error message for the RX23.  I guess that answers the question
about wether or not the VAX supported 1.44M 3.5" disks.  :-)

> 
>> And I certainly wouldn't want to try doing backups to one!!!
> 
>    It's been a while, but I remember seeing a fellow back up
> a VAXstation I using its RX50 drive (and a pile of floppies).
> The hard disk was pretty small, but it still wasn't much fun.

Are you sure it was a VAXStation?  I can't imagine where he would
have found room for an RX50 there and there is no way to hook up
external enclosured model on a VAXStation unless you had some wierd
SCSI interface for the floppy.  They were common on early MicroVAX's
though just like on the MicroPDP's.

The smalled disk I rememeber seeing on a VAX was an RD-54.  That's
159M or 397 RX50 floppies + whatever overhead your backup program
adds.  I have a MicroPDP-11 with an RD52 and RX50 drive and I wouldn't
try backing that up to floppies. It would take forever and if even one
floppy gets an error you loose it all.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>