James Robinson wrote:

> <flame protect off>
>

:-)

> Just in fun, but seriously, I can't afford to buy an OS for the old beast!!!
> And to top it off it didn't come with any media. I'm patching it together as
> I go..... I'm sure there are others out there just waiting to power there
> VAX'en up but don't have an OS.

This is what brought me here over a year ago.  I had at that time a MVII, later
upgraded
to MVIII and then downgraded again when I got a 3500 chassis.  Four years ago a
friend
was going to help me port some very old AT&T code I found and later lost to get
SVR2
running on the VAX.  This obviously never happened.  Soon I will be running 1.3
and if
the X is up to snuff, then I will probably get my 3100 up and running too.

To our DEC guru's (Allison, et al):

I used the MAINT tape on the MVII to reformat the RD53 (after LL fmting it on a
PC
when I had a need several years ago).  It goes 11 minutes into the format and
the utility
ends with a fatal error.    Is there any way to recover the drive?  I have two
drives in this
category and possibility an RD54 as well.

I cannot see buying any more of this kind of technology.  I am really tempted
to buy another
DSSI controller like the one I have in the 3500 and stick it in the MVII.  I
can the the RF71
drives really cheap and these have a lot more capacity than the RD??.  I still
put forth the
question because it is better not to have to spend any money at all (especially
on an MVII).

Thanks


Andy