Re: ZIP on GS (was: question on Standards for files)

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Pim Blokland <nipp@nipp.nl> wrote:

>I usually wait for the harddisk to come to speed before powering up the 
>computer... And the Zip is on as well. You mean I should power up the 
>computer and then the Zip? Hm, that's a novel idea. I always thought it 
>was best to have the peripherals up and running before starting the 
>computer, so that the computer can recognize them.
>But lets give it a try. Switch off the Zip, switch on the computer, 
>switch the Zip back on...
>
>Aaah! Can you believe it! Will you look at that!
>It works!

Congratulations!

>Ehm. hm. If insert a disk, the GS asks me if I want to eject or 
>initialize it. Three times. And then it mounts the disk. Hm.
>And if I drag the disk to the trash, it disappears off the desktop, but 
>it doesn't get ejected.
>Or, vice versa, if I eject the disk (using the drive button), it does 
>not get dimmed on the desktop. 
>Do you have similar results?
>Oh, it's a HFS disk, by the way. Haven't done any formatting or 
>partitioning yet.

The IIGS Finder is choking on the Mac driver partitions.

I get the same results IF the disk in question was formatted on
a Mac.  The invisible driver partitions are being interpreted by
the IIGS as real partitions which the IIGS does not have FSTs
to read.  Do not initialize these partitions when the Finder asks
you to, otherwise the disk will no longer work on the Mac!

There IS a way to prevent this problem.  You need to format
the HFS Zip disk on the IIGS under ADU.  ADU will make
Mac driver partitions that are invisible to both the Mac and
the IIGS Finders, so it'll fix the problem completely.
  
Somewhere down the line since the release of IIGS System 6.0
and System 6.0.1, MacOS changed the name of the Mac driver
partition!  Thus, the IIGS Finder no longer marks Mac driver
partitions as invisible and since no FST can recognize the Mac
driver partitions, you get the "unrecognized" message. 
  
HOWEVER, current MacOS *does* recognize *ADU* created
driver partitions.  IIGS Finder also hides ADU created ones.  Thus,
when sharing an HFS volume between a Mac and a IIGS, you
should ALWAYS use ADU and GenEx to format it first.

You need GenEx because ADU will not normally lay down a
Mac driver partition on a non-Apple hard disk (such as an
Iomega Zip disk).  I am providing the URL of GenEx for you
to download at the end of this message.

Let me explain what is going on.  Inside the resource fork of
ADU is a Mac SCSI driver.  Each mass storage device on a
Mac requires a driver stored in its own driver partition. These
partitions are small, as in about 64k, and they are of course
not mounted on the Mac desktop.  Their sole purpose is to
store the driver.
  
ADU is great at installing this driver because it names the
partition a name that the IIGS Finder recognizes as a Mac
driver partition so it gets hidden.
  
The main problem is that ADU *always* checks for an
Apple ROM on the SCSI storage device.  If an Apple ROM
is not present, it does not install the driver in the resource
fork.  Instead, it looks for a third party *Mac* SCSI driver
in the IIGS' system disk's drivers folder.
  
Now this sucks.  The ADU driver is generic and works on
all the hard drives I've tried it on and also on Zip drives, but
Apple in its infinite wisdom prevented it from installing on
non-Apple drives! 
  
Enter the GenEx program.  GenEx extracts the generic
Mac SCSI driver from ADU's resource fork and puts it into
the IIGS' drivers folder.  Thus, when ADU looks in that
folder, it finds and installs the driver and does not give the
"no mac driver found" error.

So you see the problem.  Shared HFS GS/Mac disks
should be formatted on the IIGS simply because the IIGS
tends to provide a format that is acceptable to both
platforms while the Mac tends to ignore the needs of the
IIGS.

Once you get GenEx, use the following procedure to
prepare Zip disks:

Go back to ADU and select Partition Drive.  Delete all the
partitions except one and resize that one partition to fill up
the entire drive.  Click on the button to repartition the drive.
At this point, ADU will ask you if you want to low level format
and warn you that it is going to take a long time.  Click on
yes.

ADU will wipe the drive.

By doing it this way, you are giving ADU a clean slate to
install the GenericMacSCSI driver onto the drive.

Finally, initialize the HFS volume.

Surprise, the new Zip disk works on both the IIGS and
Mac without annoying errors!

Read about GenEx here:
  
http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/upl98/Feb98/GenEx.shk.txt
  
And download it here:
  
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/upl98/Feb98/GenEx.shk
  
I'm pretty sure it will solve all your problems.  Good luck!