Archiving RX50s with PUTR

[Lyle Bickley]

Toby,

On Saturday 16 May 2009, Tobias Russell wrote:
> I have a large box of RX50 disks that I would like to archive onto
> modern media to ensure they are preserved. I've built up a machine with
> a 5.25" floppy drive and install DOS and PUTR.
>
> Is the best method to archive them to:
>
> MOUNT B: /FOREIGN /RX50
>
> followed by:
>
> COPY/DEV/FILE B: [filename]
>
> for each of the disks I insert?
>
> I was pondering whether I should use the /BINARY flag on the copy, but
> I've not seen this mentioned on other webpages I have read.

Since PUTR "understands" multiple filetypes, I have found it is much better to 
save the contents of each floppy (RX50) to a separate directory - but NOT as an 
image file, but rather as individual files. That way you can later use PUTR to 
create logical media of any form - say RL02, RX01, etc. from the captured 
files.

Assuming drive "B:" is your 5.25" drive, and the OS is RT11 you would do the 
following:

MOUNT B: /RT11 /RX50
then
COPY B:*.* .
and you will have captured the individual files that were on the RX50.

When you reverse the process to recreate a diskette (RX50, RX23, RX01, etc.) be 
sure to use a SET B: type; i.e., SET B: RX23 
then
FORMAT B: /RT11 /RX23 (or whatever)
then
COPY *.* B:

NOTE: Be absolutely sure to  SET COPY BINARY before you do anything. For some 
unknown reason, the PUTR default is ASCII. (I have a SET COPY BINARY in PUTR's 
initialization file - to be sure I never forget to do it ;-)

Cheers,
Lyle
-- 
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are were God is dividing by zero"