[Info-vax] MicrovaxStation 3100 CDROM

[David Wade]

On 05/06/2022 10:33, Dave Barter wrote:
> On Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 3:19:25 AM UTC+1, cmhe... at gmail.com wrote:
>> 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
> 
> SCSI2SD looks a great option. This may be a daft question but how do I format and write to the filesystem on the SD card from Mac/PC, do I need an emulator to do this?

You don't need an emulator. Its just a sector copy of the CD. The issue 
I had was that if you want to use multiple CD images you need to keep 
re-booting.