Re: Making External ProDOS Drive Boot

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

<bigcomfy@my-dejanews.com> wrote:

> I'd like some advice on how to get my 20 MB ProDOS external drive to boot up
> under GS/OS 6.0.1.
> 
> I've installed the OS numerous times to the drive but it will not boot.

Was the drive initialized correctly in the first place?  Some programs
might create a root directory but not fill in the boot block (though
this is pretty bad behaviour), or the boot block might be damaged.
Installing the operating system may not update the boot block.

What symptoms do you get when trying to boot, and what SCSI card is
this?

If the machine doesn't give any evidence of attempting to boot from the
SCSI card, then it is probably because the boot block is either blank or
corrupted.  The SCSI firmware on Apple's cards (and hopefully the
RamFast) checks for the value $01 appearing in the first byte of the
boot block.  If it is not there, the boot process will continue to the
next slot.

To be absolutely positive that this is not the problem, boot System
6.0.1 off floppy and use Finder to "Erase" the hard drive.  (Make sure
you have any important data backed up first, because you will lose all
of it!)

Then reinstall the system software.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand