7 Apr
2020
7 Apr
'20
8:03 a.m.
On Mon, 6 Apr 2020, Clem Cole wrote:
He used RT-11 to copy each disk pack sequentially.
That's an ANSI VOL1
record. Sadly it's not a full ANSI tape (long story -- it needs HDR1
records VMS would have been able to mount it as a foreign tape.
[ Probably getting COFF-ish now ]
Blimey, but that takes me back to my OS/360 days... I once wrote a little
utility (in assembly, of course) that dumped all the HDR/VOL/etc records.
It was a swine to debug (overnight processing because I was a student); I
had to leave instructions to the operator to "ABEND with core dump" if the
tape merely oscillated back and forth (which it did early on).
The first time, I got a snotty note from the operator saying that after
watching the tape for half an hour he had to kill it; ah, the joys of
overnight remote debugging... Later on I became a volunteer operator on
the graveyard shift and was able to sneak in the occasional "foreign
order".
-- Dave