[Info-vax] Backup TK50 tapes

[David Froble]

supervinx wrote:
> Well, let's see again what I've understood...
> 1) Bootable VMS installation tapes cannot be duplicated easily.
> 2) Once extracted all the savesets (and the binaries) a bootable tape needs 
> to be reconstructed by hand. Physically or virtually.
> 3) A bootable tape boots with a subset of VMS which will restore the savesets.
> 3) If I want a physical tape copy I need a SCSI tape unit and another OS, 
> along with tapecopy/tapedd.
> 
> So, my idea to boot simh from 5.5 tape images and install VMS is a bit
> hard to realize...
> 
> 

No.  It's not.

If your objective is to be able to use the old versions of the OS, you 
can, as someone else mentioned, copy the save set(s) from the tape.  The 
save sets are just files.  COPY will copy the files on tape to wherever 
you wish.

The save set with the ".A" is a minimal copy of VMS, and when restored 
onto a disk, using BACKUP, is then booted and the installation continues 
with the other save sets.

If your intention is to be able to build distribution / bootable tapes, 
or perhaps logical disk container files (LD), then as mentioned, 
STABACKIT does just that.  But you'll first have to install the OS from 
the save sets and then be running that OS in order to use STABACKIT.

It's been a long time, and I may need to refresh some memories.

I haven't gone into detail because I'm still not sure of just what your 
goals are.  If you're going to state your goals, then do just that. 
Don't attempt to describe what you think you should be doing, because 
that doesn't help, and gets people going off on tangents.

Note, I've never used LD container files.  All my VMS systems are still 
running on VAX and Alpha hardware.

I'm sure that quite a few people could give you very specific 
directions, if you can clearly state your goals to them.