Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!ncar!unmvax!nmtsun!warner@twg.com
From: warner@twg.com (M. Warner Losh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: Format Pro-350 disks
Message-ID: <3251@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Date: 30 Sep 89 08:55:00 GMT
Sender: news@nmtsun.nmt.edu
Organization: Gerbils R US
Lines: 29

In article <14810@netnews.upenn.edu>, chaim@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Chaim  Dworkin) writes...
>I've been using Pro-350s since around 1983 and swearing at what a stupid
[...]
>made an interesting discovery.  If you buy a generic 96 tpi diskette
>and format it in a Rainbow using the FORMAT /i command, it will create a
>formatted diskette which can then be put into a Pro-350 and initialized.
> 
>Has anyone tried this?  Can anyone tell me if I'm doing something safe
>or am I liable to find lost data sometime in the future???

Tried it?  Hell, the company that I worked for in High School RELIED on
it.  In fact, they used to use the Rainbow to make distributions for them.
At the time the rainbow wasn't good for much else.  That was before the
days of LCTERM, EMACS, MS-DOS and 100B's.  It is a well know fact that the
Rainbow is one of the few computers around that can format RX50 floppies.
At one point, I don't even think that VAXen could do it, but I'm SURE that
has had to have changed by now.  [[Side note:  How do you format RX50's
on a VAX (microvax II)?]]

So, to answer your question, yes, it is cool to do this.  I know that the
disks that I formatted on a rainbow Seven years ago are still being used
(once in a blue moon) on a PRO 350 with no problems at all.  (Gee, has it
really been seven years?  Have I had my rainbow for five?  Gee, I suddenly
feel Old.....) :-)
--
Warner Losh
warner@twg.com	...!amdahl!twg-ap!warner
..but at night I'm a junk food junkie, good Lord have pity on me...
My spelling and views are my own.  Only the letters have been changed...