Re: IIGS & floptical drives?

[kmitchel@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Kirk Mitchell)]

Nathan Mates (nathan@cco.caltech.edu) wrote:
: In article <ajcohen-1202960938490001@ntcs-ip3.uchicago.edu>,
: The Fog <ajcohen@quads.uchicago.edu> wrote:

: [Lemme answer these out of order...]

: >Also, is the Sequential Systems RamFast SCSI card better than Apple's
: >high-speed scsi card in terms of performance?

:    Heck yes. My boot time got cut by about 15-20 seconds (pretty much
: 30-50% off) when I switched up from an Apple HS SCSI card to a RamFAST
: 256K Rev C. With the latest ROMs (3.01e is the latest), the RamFAST
                                    ^^^^^
(* Nitpick alert *)  They're at 3.01f, but you probably don't need to 
worry about this unless you use tape for backup (particularly the ROM 
portion built-in application... was that redundant), I do so I did.

Agreed on performance.  It whooped the tar out of the old CMS card I had 
been using.

: >   I was wondering if anybody has any information regarding IIGS's and
: >floptical drives: compatibility, what driver software to use, what brand
: >of drive, etc.

A guy on GEnie has been using one (optical) for a couple of years.  All I 
can remember is MO... Sorry.  W/ RamFast.  Floptical work, though there 
seemed to be some conflict with Mac drivers and the RamFast, and leaving 
the disk in during power up or down.  The Mac driver business seemed to 
be if you wanted to swap disks with a floptical drive installed on a Mac.

:    The GS should be able to use any form of SCSI Floptical
: drive. Tulin (sorry, forget their email address) sold an external one
: along with some disks that included drivers for the Floptical and the
: Apple HS SCSI card.  With the right ROMs, the RamFAST SCSI card can
: access them, no software drivers needed. I initially bought an
: external Floptical from Tulin a few years back, but then bought an
: internal one (made by Iomega, bought mailorder) for my system. Both
: have worked great; it's only that I wanted the drive inside the
: minitower I use for my SCSI chain that I switched.

Did you every have any problems with leaving a disk in when powering down?

: Nathan Mates
: -- 
: <*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/      <*>
: # And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the
: # Kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in 
: # parables" Mark 4:11, NRSV

Kirk Mitchell
kmitchel@pld.com <-- preferred