Re: Upgrading a IIgs

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <3425885D.4A17@idir.net>, Norby  <norby@idir.net> wrote:
>Okay.  I think I've got my plan together.

   Good luck finding new Zips nowadays... not being produced any more.
[Idiots spreading the lie that the GS is dead and not worth spending
any money on have dropped sales to zero. You'll have to find a used
Zip or twgs]

>RAMFast SCSI
>Sirius RAM IIgs
>ZipGS
>As far as I can tell, these three devices will all work together.  
>Is this true?

   Make sure that's the ZipGS v1.02 (as identified on the
card). Previous ones had bugs that made them unhappy with
Ramfasts. Also, going to more than 4MB of expansion RAM usually
requires DMA turned off, which slows down HD access.

>Also, are there any drive size limitations on the RAMFast?
>(I've got a spare 500MB external)

   Not really any size limits; you're more likely to run into problems
with certain drives that require certain components of the SCSI-II
spec, like Quantum fireballs. You'll need to partition the drive
before use to put on boot partitions if you want, but ProDOS
partitions are limited to 32MB each. 

   You can format partitions larger than 32MB for HFS (Mac-style), but
be warned that there are known (and some unknown but suspected) bugs
that'll corrupt files on disks. There aare also no disk fixer programs
for the GS; you'll have to either format and partition initially on a
Mac or jump thru some nasty hoops as Macs require a driver partition
before they'll recognize anything. [Making it *OPTIONAL* would have
saved a lot of headaches, but Macs just have to be Insanely
Incompatible (oops, was supposed to be Great, but ended up as wacky).]

Nathan Mates

--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
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