> Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 21:29:21 +0200 (MET DST)
> From: Ronny Svedman <ronny@Update.UU.SE>
> To: Johnny Billquist <bqt@Update.UU.SE>
> cc: Erno.Palonheimo@Hut.FI, port-vax@netbsd.org
> Subject: Re: Formatting software tape image, anyone?
> 
> On Thu, 13 Apr 2000, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 13 Apr 2000, Erno Palonheimo wrote:
> > 
> > > I've understood that if you want to format MSCP disks on a MicroVAX II,
> > > you have to use some DEC-supplied utility to do that. If I'm correct, the
> > > utility is on a TK50 cartridge, from which you're supposed to boot to the
> > > diagnostics utility which also includes formatter.
> 
> > 
> > I think there is a copyright, but I don't know the legalese of this.
> > 
> > But apart from that, dd is *not* a usable tool.
> > This is a typical example when Unix tools fail miserably. Tapes have
> > records, of perhaps different lengths. You need to preserve this
> > meta-information when copying tapes, or the copy will not actually be the
> > same as the original, even though you have the same bytes on both.
> 
> I used something called copytape, and that seems to work out fine.. I'll
> try and dig it up the next time I boot the MVII.

Somewhere lost in my archives is a set of files from the Diagnostic
tape, together with a shell script to put it all together on the tape
drive.  Also lost in the archives is the recipe to turn the "Customer"
tape into the "Field Service" Diagnostic tape.  This makes it much more
useful, because you get a disk formatting program that can actually do
something.

    carl

-- 
        carl lowenstein         marine physical lab     u.c. san diego
        {decvax|ucbvax} !ucsd!mpl!cdl                 cdl@mpl.ucsd.edu
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