DEC PRO 350 System Disks
Tom Lake
Does anyone know where I could get a complete set of system disks
for this unit? I'm willing to buy them if necessary. Is it possible to
create
a bootable disk from the HD files?
Also, I found an FTP site with a lot of disk images (.dsk and .td0 files)
How can I get those from my Win XP PC to my 350 so I can use them?
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/pro/
Thanks for any info you might have for a DEC NooB.
Tom Lake
Roger Ivie
> Also, I found an FTP site with a lot of disk images (.dsk and .td0 files)
> How can I get those from my Win XP PC to my 350 so I can use them?
>
> ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/pro/
>
> Thanks for any info you might have for a DEC NooB.
The .td0 files are images for a program called TeleDisk. It appears that
TeleDisk is no longer available, although some older shareware versions
can still occasionally be found on the net. I don't know how well they
get along with modern PC hardware and XP.
See http://www.fpns.net/willy/wteledisk.htm for info about TeleDisk and
the image format.
--
roger ivie
ri...@ridgenet.net
Jeffrey Armstrong
> How can I get those from my Win XP PC to my 350 so I can use them?
>
The .td0 files are from a program called Teledisk. Teledisk is no
longer supported, but is available from a variety of locations. The
problem with Teledisk is that it only reliably works on DOS-based
systems (and possibly the win95 family) running on systems slower than
or equal to about 33Mhz. So to use it with any chance of it working,
you'll probably need an old 486 or lower.
The .dsk extension is a bit ambiguous. I seem to remember a utility
called disk2.0 or something that predates Teledisk. It's probably just
as difficult to use nowadays.
I would look at the link provided by Roger. It's a good rundown on
Teledisk.
-Jeff Armstrong
jba _AT_ member _DOT_ fsf _DOT_ org
Tom Lake
"Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4723f059$0$16458$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
> I just bought a PRO 350 with P/OS on the HD but no system diskettes.
> Does anyone know where I could get a complete set of system disks
> for this unit? I'm willing to buy them if necessary. Is it possible to
> create
> a bootable disk from the HD files?
>
> Also, I found an FTP site with a lot of disk images (.dsk and .td0 files)
> How can I get those from my Win XP PC to my 350 so I can use them?
OK, now I have 21 actual floppy disks with what is supposedly P/OS v. 3.2
on them. My hard drive was wiped clean before I got the machine and
I need to reinstall P/OS on it. I have tried every one of the 21 floppies
and not one of them will boot. I also have two different diagnostics which
*do* boot so I know my floppy drives are OK. My question is this:
How can I get P/OS installed on my hard drive? If you have a disk image
which can be used to install P/OS on a new hard drive or can provide me
with a link to a site that has one or would be willing to sell me a physical
disk
that would do it, I'd be eternally grateful!
(OK, maybe just a tad short of eternity!)
TIA
Tom Lake
Tom Lake
"Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4723f059$0$16458$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
> Also, I found an FTP site with a lot of disk images (.dsk and .td0 files)
> How can I get those from my Win XP PC to my 350 so I can use them?
>
> ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/pro/
OK, I got both PUTR and Teledisk. Now I have all 21 P/OS disks. The
problem is, none of them will boot! I know my method of making disks
works because I have made two bootable utility disks. They don't allow
me to run the 21 install, disks, though. How can I install P/OS? If anyone
has a bootable P/OS disk, could you send me an image of it or I can
send you a 5.25" floppy and some money and you could make a copy
and send the copy back to me? Please respond! I have what looks to be
very nice hardware but all I can do on it right now is run a diagnostic!
TIA
Tom Lake
Jerome H. Fine
Jerome Fine replies:
I just subscribed to comp.sys.dec.micro after being away
for about 2 years - reason for the delay in my reply.
I am not sure if WXP on your PC will allow you to use
PUTR from John Wilson:
http://www.dbit.com/pub/putr/
If your are (or if not and you are able to run PUTR under
plain DOS), then post a reply or send me an e-mail and
we can discuss the floppy media to be used and how to
copy them.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
--
To obtain the actual e-mail address, please remove
the ten characters which immediately follow the 'at'.
rr....@gmail.com
Not quite sure *WHY* you want a pro 350, but I might still be able to talk about them a little. There was a *BIG* difference between a PDP-11 running RSX-11 or RSTS and a pro-350. They were intended for entirely different markets. Add the developers toolkit and suddenly you have a pdp-11/23 running
rsx-11. DEC made *GREAT* equipment, from the perspective of the user--just not the pro-350.
The pdp-11 was a scientific and business market computer and the pro-350 was an attempt to put the minicomputer on a desk. It just needed a manager.
Back in the day, all of dec's software installation was automated. Third party developers did what they did, but i think dec did things well. Don't quite remember the process, but whatever it was was straightforward. The pro 350 ran everything under menus. The toolkit gave you the rsx prompt. I think I have full documentation--the toolkit documentation might be 3-4 feet long, or something like that. The operating system and applications came in pretty little boxes the size of a copy of "War and Peace" or something like that.
The machine required specially formatted 5.25 inch disks. You could buy them from dec or format them yourself on a rainbow-100, i think. It was a dec manufactured ibm-pc compatible. Never knew a way to format them on the pro 350.
Programming in the toolkit, you were limited to the pdp-11 64k address space, but from macro the operating system had good support for overlays. You could remap the 64k address space into the larger physical address space in 8k blocks called apr's. In addition, the operating system supported overlays and a careful programmer could swap data files to contiguous files on disk. I wrote a distillation model that way around 1990.
My dad's house is getting cleaned out and not quite sure what the future of this stuff is. Probably not good. There is a pro-350, letterprinter 100 (dot matrix serial printer--letter quality was less than a daisy wheel), and a few applications and modems. Then we got interested in macs.
Roger Ivie
> The machine required specially formatted 5.25 inch disks. You could buy
> them from dec or format them yourself on a rainbow-100, i think. It was
> a dec manufactured ibm-pc compatible.
8088. Although it could run MS-DOS, it did not have an IBM-compatible
ROM BIOS and the hardware was significantly different.
--
roger ivie
ri...@ridgenet.net