Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:35946 comp.sys.dec.micro:810
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!lll-winken!uunet!sdrc!scjones
From: scjones@sdrc.UUCP (Larry Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: DEC Rainbow 100 disk formats
Message-ID: <849@sdrc.UUCP>
Date: 9 Oct 89 21:23:43 GMT
References: <3603@pinas.cs.vu.nl>
Organization: Structural Dynamics Research Corp., Cincinnati
Lines: 27

In article <3603@pinas.cs.vu.nl>, huisjes@cs.vu.nl (Michiel Huisjes) writes:
> A friend of mine just got hold of a DEC Rainbow 100 running MS-DOS 2.11 and
> he's having troubles with disk formats. It seems that a DEC Rainbow formats
> disks at 400K (how odd) and cannot read normal 360K type DOS disks.
> Trying to read a 360K formatted disk gives the error message "non-DOS disk in
> drive A:" and if I read a 400K formatted disk in my 386 high-density drive
> it claims that the disk type is a single-sided double density 8 spt disk with
> 14K used somewhere in the middle (Norton utilities). 
> What am I doing wrong? Is a DEC Rainbow really that incompatible and more
> important, how do I transfer my software onto the DEC?

Yes, good old Digital really came up with an interesting format
for the Rainbow.  As I recall, the normal Rainbow disk format is
double density, 8 or 9 sectors per track, but 80 tracks (rather
than the usual 40), and single sided!  If you have a
sophisticated formatting program, you may be able to format and
write a Rainbow disk in a high-density drive (which reminds me
that I probably ought to post the sophisticated formatting
program I have).  If not, you should be able to read a standard
SINGLE SIDED pc disk in the Rainbow (try FORMAT /1).
----
Larry Jones                         UUCP: uunet!sdrc!scjones
SDRC                                      scjones@SDRC.UU.NET
2000 Eastman Dr.                    BIX:  ltl
Milford, OH  45150-2789             AT&T: (513) 576-2070
"I have plenty of good sense.  I just choose to ignore it."
-Calvin