[Info-vax] Backup TK50 tapes

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2013-02-23 17:41:38 +0000, supervinx said:

> Well, let's see again what I've understood...

0) No one willing uses tape boot.

Yep!  You're right.  Nobody really wants to use something that slow and 
tedious and ill-featured.  So much so that OpenVMS engineering 
intentionally didn't support tape bootstraps with OpenVMS Alpha.

> 1) Bootable VMS installation tapes cannot be duplicated easily.

No one willing uses tape boot.

There are some steps involved, yes.

> 2) Once extracted all the savesets (and the binaries) a bootable tape needs
> to be reconstructed by hand. Physically or virtually.

No one willingly uses tape boot.

Nope.  Not what was written.

> 3) A bootable tape boots with a subset of VMS which will restore the savesets.

No one willingly uses tape boot.

Yep.  Please go try a tape boot.

> 3) If I want a physical tape copy I need a SCSI tape unit and another OS,
> along with tapecopy/tapedd.

No one willingly uses tape boot.

You need to load other tools on VMS to replicate, or you can build a 
bootable tape from OpenVMS VAX.

> So, my idea to boot simh from 5.5 tape images and install VMS is a bit
> hard to realize...

No one willingly uses tape boot.

Please go do a tape install on a scratch disk on your VAX system.

Please learn for yourself why no one willingly uses a tape boot.

Save the savesets if you're inclined, but the tapes themselves can be 
mounted and framed somewhere.  A nice shelf of knick-knacks or a 
shadowbox should show off the sculpted lines of the elegant 
first-generation CompacTape cartridge, replete with the original 
stick-on labels typical of the era.  A wonderful specimen, you have 
there.


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