Re: 1.4M drive in a 800K case

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

<noone@nowhere.net> wrote:

> Rodney Hester wrote:
>
> > OK, the burning question - if you install a Superdrive controller card
> > in a GS in slot 5 and hook all your drives to it, can you still boot
> > from your daisy-chained floppy drives normally (including 5.25" slot 6
> > drives)?
>
> If I recall correctrly from the superdrive controller docs, you can only
> hook two 3.5" drives to the superdrive controller.

You can only connect two Apple 3.5 Drives and/or SuperDrives, as there
are only two drive select signals.  You should be able to connect
additional UniDisk 3.5 drives, as they use a different addressing
mechanism (7-bit address field in the SmartPort packet).

You cannot connect any 5.25" drives to the SuperDrive card.

The electrical characteristics of the controller (and the computer's
power supply) probably limit it to four drives being connected.

> You need to hook the 5.25" drives to the SmartPort and enable Slot6 for
> smartport drives.

Minor detail: slot 6 is listed in the control panel as "Disk Port", not
"SmartPort" (slot 5).

The built-in disk port on the IIgs is not called a SmartPort.  That name
is used for the firmware in slot 5 (and in disk controllers which
implement a compatible firmware interface), and the protocol used to
communicate with _some_ drives connected to the disk port (notably the
UniDisk 3.5).

> If you need more 3.5" drives, then you should use the
> smartport and move the supercontroller to another slot other than 5.

This is true if you want more than two Apple 3.5 Drives and/or
SuperDrives.


If you have a SuperDrive card in slot 5, you will lose access to the
/RAM5 volume (which requires the internal slot 5 firmware) and must
connect all 3.5" drives to the SuperDrive card.

Apart from these details, the boot sequence will proceed as normal.  If
you have the startup slot set to "Scan", the firmware will check for a
disk controller (or equivalent, such as a SCSI card or RAM card) in slot
7 first.  Assuming none is found, it will proceed through slot 6 and 5
looking for a boot disk, with the usual pause of a few seconds on the
first 5.25" drive.  If there is no bootable disk in the 5.25" drive and
none in the first 3.5" drive connected to the SuperDrive card, the boot
sequence will continue searching slots 4 through 1 for another disk
controller card (or equivalent), eventually showing the "Check Startup
Device" message if no boot disk is found.


I have my SuperDrive card in slot 6, with one SuperDrive connected.  I
very rarely used 5.25" drives, and never needed them at the same time as
the SuperDrive.  I have the internal slot 5 firmware enabled, with one
Apple 3.5 Drive connected to the disk port (and a 5.25" drive when
needed), plus /RAM5.