[Info-vax] MicrovaxStation 3100 CDROM

[Chris Hanson]

On 6/1/22 10:13 AM, Dave Barter wrote:
> I have a 3100 unit that I need to load software onto. At the moment it only has VMS 7.1 and a TK50 tape drive. I don't have access to another drive. Maybe a dumb question, but can I purchase a cheap external SCSI CDROM drive and use this to move files across? The 3100 has a SCSI connector at the back, it's probably DEC proprietary but I'm hoping there is a connector out there that might work.

I'd suggest using a SCSI2SD, which you can easily configure as multiple 
devices. One (or more) of these can be an emulated CD-ROM with a DEC 
RRD40 identifier string and 512-byte block size, which will enable you 
to boot from it.

Another option would be to use SIMH to emulate an InfoServer with one or 
more emulated CD-ROM drives attached, put it on the same network, and 
then access the drives over the network. That would also let you back up 
your 3100 to storage on the emulated InfoServer and therefore to a more 
modern system. (And you could even then emulate your 3100 if you want.)

   -- Chris