Re: Best setup for Mac //e card

[alexm@leng.zip.com.au]

Labelas Enoreth <labelas@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Some advice from another user of the IIe card.
> Don't use the '2.2.2d1' version, it is no real upgrade from 2.2.1 other
> than being able to now use it on a few of the all-in-one LCs (5xx) and has
> several bugs in it as well (like locking any disk in the superdrive). I've
> used my card fine all the way up to system 7.5.5 (which I am using right
> now). As for it crashing, check your extensions and controls panels, I
> always made an extension manager set just for my IIe card with only the
> essentials. (Also good because memory fills up quick with only 8mb of RAM
> and using system 7.5x)

Thanks for that - I'll try out 2.2.1. As for memory, I'm thinking of
splashing out and getting those two sticks of 4MB 30-pin RAM I need to take
my LCII up to the physical 10MB limit...

> Also, the 'ProDOS File System' Extension is not compatible past system
> 7.5x. PC Exchange superceded it. Some say to leave PC Exchange off when
> you're going to use the card, but I never had a problem (it's sort of hard
> to mess with mounted volumes outside of the IIe environment once you start
> it up, because it unmounts them from the Finder when you boot it). Either
> way, the only reason you'd need either of them is to mess with ProDOS
> disks in the finder which is, admittedly, a convenience. But the best
> thing to do, IMO, is just pick all the minimal stuff you'd need and put it
> in an Extension Manager set for when you want to use the IIe card (if you
> have to turn 32-bit on or off, you need to restart anyway)...
> Leave out anything like screen savers, things that add time-related
> features, things which will try to interrupt whatever you're doing for any
> reason, background compression or disk cataloging...and anything else you
> think it might not like.

Yeah, I've been investigating the ProDOS hard-drive problems over the past
few days. Since I last ran the IIe card, I've also upgraded to 7.5.5. You're
right about the 'ProDOS File System' extension - PC Exchange works just fine
although it assigns a floppy disk icon to the ProDOS hard-drive :-)
I'm using one of those original Apple 40MB Quantum drives with a 32MB
ProDOS partition - but both PC Exchange and PFS refuse to automatically mount
the ProDOS partition on the desktop unless I partition the remaining 8MB as a
Mac partition. Then it automatically mounts both. That's just a little annoying
as I don't need the 8MB partition and it clutters up the desktop (due to
the limitations of the LCII case, I've converted an old PC desktop
case into an external SCSI box which contains four to six additional SCSI
devices, including the ProDOS drive). Other than that I've found that booting
with few or no Extensions does solve the problem I was having with the IIe Card
- now it's just a matter of identifying the conflicting extension and dealing
with it...

Thanks,

Alex.

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