Re: Can IIGS share drive with Mac?

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

Lim Thye Chean <limtc@iname.com> wrote:

> I have a Mac and IIGS, can I set up sharing of harddisk among them?

If you mean physically connecting the drive to both machines, then the
answer is no.  (It may be technically possible to do this from a
hardware standpoint, but neither operating system is designed to support
shared simultaneous access to a hard drive; it won't work at all if you
have a RamFast SCSI card in the Apple II.)

I wouldn't even recommend physically moving a hard drive between the two
machines.  This would work, but would be cumbersome.

The best option, if you can spare the ports, is to set up a LocalTalk
network between the machines and use File Sharing on the Mac to allow
the IIgs to access its hard drive.

You still have to boot the IIgs from a local floppy, unless you go to
the trouble (and rather major expense) of buying AppleShare 3.0 for the
Macintosh (and this will only work on a 68K machine, not a PowerMac).

If you aren't using the printer port on either machine, the connection
can be a simple serial cable (the same one used to connect a IIgs or Mac
to an ImageWriter II).  Assuming you are using a printer, you will have
to work out how to juggle your ports.

The easiest solution is to use a printer that supports LocalTalk
networking, such as an ImageWriter II with a LocalTalk card installed,
an Apple LaserWriter, or some of the HP LaserJet models that include
Postscript and LocalTalk support.

In any of these cases, you can buy a set of three PhoneNet connector
kits for very little, and hook up all the machines on a network.  The
printer can be shared by either computer.

If your printer doesn't support LocalTalk, then you will have to do
something like share the modem port on the Mac between your modem and
printer, e.g. by using a switch box, and being careful not to try to use
the modem while printing (or print while online).

[I currently have to juggle my Mac's printer port between LocalTalk and
the modem, because the modem port was damaged in a lightning strike;
this requires a reboot to make AppleTalk let go of the serial port, even
with Open Transport.  A standard serial printer and modem might exhibit
similar problems, especially if they have "smart" software, such as with
the Global Village modems.]

You still have a spare serial port on the IIgs, so one option might be
to put the printer or modem on the IIgs, but I don't know if you would
find that particularly useful.


As far as software goes on the IIgs, you need to set up a boot disk with
the appropriate software.  There isn't enough space on an 800K disk to
include AppleShare client software as well as Finder, so you will have
to launch Finder (or your favourite program selector) as an application
from the file server.

To set up a boot disk, launch the Installer, go into Customize, then
create a standard 800K boot disk, then choose the "Network: Local
Startup" option, which will modify the disk as required.

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