Re: Apple II Csa2 FAQs 9/9/1998 Zip Drive & Tape

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:

>Supertimer writes ...
>> 
>> Rubywand wrote:
>> 
>> >     Regarding for-Mac Zip disks: what you are saying is unclear. Are
>> >you saying that a for-Mac disk can not be formatted as a single HFS
>> >volume from the Finder? Are you saying they must be formatted or that
>> >they must be partitioned using ADU?
>> 
>> That's the theory, although I have not tested it.
>> 
>> Mac Zip disks come with driver partitions, so if you just try to stick
>> it in a GS' Zip drive, the Initialize dialog box will pop up twice and
>> if you click yes to both, you end up with a two partition disk, the
>> first one (the driver partition) being 5 kilobytes in size!
>> 
>> You don't need to partition it through ADU or another utility, but
>> if you don't, you are stuck with the 5 kilobyte partition.
>> 
>> Basically, Macintosh Zips are already partitioned.
>> 
>> The only way I can think of to get rid of it is the "erase hard disk"
>> feature I think the RamFAST utilities have (but I don't have a
>> RamFAST, so I can verify), a Macintosh utility, or the Zip utilities
>> for the PC.  PC Zip utilities include one that will "prepare" a Zip
>> disk.  I'm fairly certain that preparing the disk with the PC Zip
>> utilities will turn the Mac Zip disk into one that can then be
>> formatted as a single nonpartitioned volume from the GS Finder.
>
>
>     Probably, that would work-- I've reformatted a few trashed Zip
>disks on our PC with no problem. Then, too, I've reformatted Zip disks
>on the GS via the Ramfast.system utilities with no problems.
>
>     My guess is that there is no major difference in low-level
>formatting between Zip disks for PC and Mac. So, probably, the
>Ramfast.system "Partition" option would have no difficulty overwriting a
>for-Mac Zip disk and creating new ProDOS partitions which use the entire
>disk. Still, for sure, it would be nice to hear from someone who has
>actually done it.

I'm sure there is no difference at all in low-level formatting.

The major difference between a PC and Mac formatted Zip disk
is that the Mac disk is always going to be partitioned ('cause of
the driver).  This won't cause the Zip disk to be nonusable on
a IIGS at all.  In fact, you can use the Mac Zip disk as is from
the Finder (even if it has nasty driver partitions).

What it won't let you do is, however, use GS Finder to make a
non-paritioned HFS Zip disk which (I've noticed) is a bit faster
than a partitioned disk.

For example, if you run the Mac Zip disk through the RamFAST
or ADU partitioning sequence, GS Finder is no longer going
to perform the several minute low level format that I've found
makes ~100MB HFS non-paritioned Zip disks a little faster.

However, ADU has a "delete disk" feature, I remember, and
it will basically level the disk.  When you take the now
"deleted" disk back to GS Finder, it will again perform the
several minute low level format.  I remember that the RamFAST
utilities also includes a "delete disk" function.