Re: CMS SCSI II card

[apowers@lightlink.com (Adam Powers)]

In article <1dd248i.t8z5pka2u1o4N@dempson.actrix.gen.nz>,
dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:

> Righto.  I'll retract at least part of my previous statement.  My
> information is obviously out of date.
> 
> Is there a loaded GS/OS driver for the CMS (i.e. a file in
> *:System:Drivers), or is it using firmware on the card (and a generated
> GS/OS driver)?
> 
> I gather the firmware has been upgraded since the original release (I
> assumed it was a dead end product and nothing had been done on it since
> 1987ish).

The card I have has ROM dated 3/1/90.  It does not use jumpers to
set partition size like the older CMS cards did.
There is a CMS.DRIVER file for GS/OS included on the utilities floppy.

> Does Advanced Disk Utility work with it?  (If not, how do you partition
> the drive?)

The CMS.UTILITIES program will format the drive; if you have a IIgs,
it's easiest to just boot with the driver installed on a floppy and
GS/OS will prompt you to partition the drive.  Advanced Disk Utility
recognizes the partitions just fine, though I haven't tried to
modify my partitions.  On the IIe, the manual recommends using
Filer (included on the utilities disk) to create ProDOS partitions.

I have found that the CMS card and utilities can be ornery - 
I could format and partition an old Miniscribe 20MB drive, but
trying to boot from it gave I/O errors or hung trying to mount
the volume, and the CMS formatter refused to format a perfectly
good Conner 40MB drive.  It works OK with a Quantum 40MB though.

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