... and the resulting backup will be much more reliable than the one written by an old tape drive (which model, by the way?) on a possibly old tape, if that ever succeeds. I made especially frustration experiences using the once famous TK50 drives, and even (a little) more recent DAT drives tend to fail very often nowadays. One disadvantage, however, is the necessary struggle with licensing, although that can be managed with a little help. Another option is a backup over network WITHOUT using an operating system running on the system to be saved. Unfortunately it has up to now been tested on MicroVAX I and MicroVAX II systems using a DEQNA or DELQA network adapter only. It uses a simh VAX to send a special machine language program to the backup target computer, on that the program in turn uses MSCP commands to send a bit-wise disk copy back to the simh VAX. It is new, it is unconventional, but it has been successfully tested on several MicroVAX I and MicroVAX II computers. I think it is time to get out one of my VAXstation 3100s (won't make any difference) and test it there. But you will need to be patient – other projects have priority for the time being. To be honest - I expect the program will need adaptation to the newer hardware, especially the network adapter - MSCP hasn't changed I think.
Am So., 7. Dez. 2025 um 22:27 Uhr schrieb Antonio Carlini via cctalk < [email protected]>: > On 07/12/2025 20:27, Peter Ekstrom via cctalk wrote: > > I managed to reset the system password so now I can login as well. It > runs > > pretty well. > > I tried to make a tape backup of what's on the disk but it seems all my > > tapes dirty-up > > the head of the tape drive. Anyone know of a way to clean an actual tape? > > Pull all the > > tape out and wipe it with a dry cloth? > > One option would be to create a SIMH VMS host, configure it to be in a > cluster, configure your real HW uV3100 to be a satellite node (booting > off a root on the SIMH host system disk), boot the uV3100 into the > cluster, mount the uV3100 disk and back it up with BACKUP. > > That might be easier and quicker than cleaning a tape. > > > Antonio > > > -- > Antonio Carlini > [email protected] > >
