DEC Pro 350

[billdeg]

Does one create a boot diskette on a DEC Professional 350? I am unsure if this is possible, I am a newbie to these guys. My system seems to work, but if the hard drive fails I would like to create some sort of diagnostic/recovery disk if ever needed. What is the best support strategy for a PRO 350?
Bill D

[Terry Yager]

I'm not very familliar with POS, but I'm sure you can create a system disk, provided you have a formatted disk. DEC never supplied a disk formatting program, expecting thier customers to purchase pre-formatted disks from them. Fortunately tho, some clever hackers came up with several formatting programs, one of which shouldn't be too hard to find. There are a few DEC owners here, so mebbe...

--T

[Micom 2000]

Many DEC Pro 350 and possibly Decmate users used a DEC Rainbow to produce DEC-formatted disks. The early versions of the Rainbow couldn't do it either. I imagine Terry is using a little incentive/dig for me. (how do you make a smily including a stuck-out tongue) The Rainbow was DECs initial attempt to challenge IBMs foray into the market of personal computing, but they soon abandoned it, but not before they had produced a program to format DEC floppies because of customer outrage.

Contact me by PM and I'll see what I can do. With snail-mail and my isolated location, it could take some time tho.
Check out your local DEC community and ask the DECers.
Most of them have found ways of making DEC-fornat disks.

Lawrence