Yes - it has to be single density. Just about any CP/M system with 8" disks should be able to format single density ones. The IBM 3740 format was kind of the standard interchange format - a lowest common denominator that most systems could handle. There is an XXDP utility that can be used to update such disks to RX02 format - requires an RX02, of course. I do not believe there is anything to go the other way. The DEC RX02 format is special and weird. It uses the same base single density formatting, using single density sector headers with double density data areas. As such, really nothing else can create it. My method for creating RX02 media has been to format blank disks as single density on something else, then use the XXDP util to update them to RX02. I'm sure you can format RX01 disks with a Catweasel, I just have no idea how this is done. I don't have a Catweasel and have never seen one. You can, however, use ImageDisk and a compatible PC controller to format single density disks - which is a method I've used to get RX01 blanks as well. -Ian On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 11:59 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
As long as it's single density though. Right? Not sure if I have a cp/m system w/ single density 8" drives. I'll have to check. Thanks for the tip. Of anyone going to then workshop has any I will trade rx01 for rx02. i have a lot of tx02's
On Aug 9, 2017 10:04 PM, "Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
If you have any CP/M machine that uses 8" disks, you can use that to format blank RX01 media. It's just IBM 3740 SSSD - at least, in the low level. Then you can do the high level formatting on the DEC machine.
-Ian
On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 8:43 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Anyone ever formated an 8" disk to be used in an RX01 using a catweasel controller? Curious if it's worth trying this route. I have a Tandon
848
drive. Bill