Re: Help with IIgs

[paw@peg.pegasus.oz.au]

Nathan Mates <nathan@visi.com> wrote:

>>In article<32B26DB3.7D8F@unixg.ubc.ca>, Ben Lai <benlai@unixg.ubc.ca> wrote:
>> >> Try to get Iomega's Zip Drive. It comes with 100 MB disks and allows you
>> >> to easily exchange large amounts of data with other Zip drive users.
>>
>> >Since GS/OS 6.0.1 can read MS-DOS files, so I guess a IIgs can read both
>> >MS-DOS or Mac formatted Zip disk, is this correct?
>>
>>    Mac formatted Zip disks are fine, but I think that PC Zip disks
>> could be a problem. PCs had to be different and partition scsi drives
>> differently than Apples.

and David Empson <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> replied:

>> so I'd think that the SCSI card might not recognize the partitions. If the
>> SCSI card can deal with the Zip's formatting, you should be able to use the
>> MS-DOG FST to read it.
>
>Speaking from experience: a PC-formatted ZIP disk is _not_ recognised by
>the IIgs (with the MS-DOS FST installed). You can partition it, of course.
>
>In theory, it should work with Peter Watson's MS-DOS utilities, but I
>didn't try.

The latest version of the MSDOS Utilities (v2.30) definitely handles
PC-formatted Zip disks. Earlier versions "should have" worked, but Zip
used a variation on the partition map that I hadn't seen before!  :-}

>>    Thanks to Win95 going and changing the file structure a bit at the
>> start (the VFAT long filename extensions), you could probably read off
>> files from this disk no problem, but the MS-DOS FST would muck up the
>> VFAT tables if you tried to write to it.
>
>The MS-DOS FST is read only, so this is a moot point.  MS-DOS Utilities
>would certainly cause problems.

!!! WRONG !!!

V2.30 of the MSDOS Utilities handles Win 95 long filenames. It always
reads them, and at a pinch can create long filenames using 'MRename'.

BTW, the only reason that the MSDOS FST has so much trouble is that the
extra directory entries used to store the long filename look like volume
label entries to GS/OS, which proceeds to get very confused!

>> Should you have Win95 Service Pack #2 installed with the
>> FAT32 support, that'll probably store data to a Zip disk in a way that
>> the MS-DOS FST couldn't deal with at all.
>
>No argument there.  MS-DOS Utilities wouldn't handle it either.

OK, you got me on that one! Anybody got the specs for FAT32 format?
I suspect it would be almost trivial for MSDOS Utilities to support it!

For the record. If anyone finds any MSDOS disk anywhere that the GS can
_physically_ read and that MSDOS Utilities v2.30 or later can't handle,
I want to know about it! (Physical read test: Can read block 0 with a
disk zap utility). They even support PC Transporter "hard disk" files!

Mac vs GS Chuckle
-----------------
I have a Mac as well, and recently received a PC formatted disk containing
the Australian Computer Society '1996 Handbook'. The label promised the text
files were readable on a Mac. However, every time I inserted the disk the Mac
either hung or bombed. (System 7.5.3 with PC Exchange). After half an hour
of frustration, I tried it on my GS. It was a Windows 95 formatted disk, on
which someone had been very careful to ensure all files had "short" names,
except that Windows 95 still created "long name" entries with the file name
in lower case! A check with Apple confirmed that PC Exchange cannot currently
handle Win 95 long names! So, after yet again "rescuing" a Mac disk on my GS
by copying the files into a Mac-readable format, I was able to read the 
files!

MUG! Newsflash
--------------
The MUG! (MSDOS Utilities Graphic !nterface) NDA is now in beta testing.
Look for it in the new year!

-------------------
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