Re: MSDOS and SCSI Partitions

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

In article <383500002@peg>,  <paw@peg.apc.org> wrote:
> David Empson wrote: 
> >MS-DOS, however, uses a different partitioning scheme that is not
> >compatible with the Mac/Apple II scheme.  Special software is required
> >to access data on an hard drive with the PC's standard partitioning
> >scheme, and you cannot mix MS-DOS and ProDOS/HFS partitions on the
> >same disk.
> 
> Why not? A _SCSI_ partition could be further partitioned with _MSDOS_
> partitions, couldn't it?

This would be of absolutely no practical use.  The resulting MS-DOS
partition would only be accessible on a Mac or IIgs, not on a PC!

The PC will not be able to access an MS-DOS partition unless the drive
has the standard PC partitioning table, which resides in physical
block 0, the same place as the Mac/Apple II partitioning scheme's
Device Descriptor Map.

A PC SCSI drive is just like every other type of PC drive in terms of
formatting.  If accessed on an Apple II, it will appear to be an
unpartitioned drive, because it doesn't have a Mac/Apple II partition
table.

> My MSDOS Utilities (MSDOS Tools) can access an MSDOS partitioned SCSI
> drive quite happily.

OK - I had forgotten about that.  I was only aware of their use in
accessing floppies and the PC Transporter file (which implies it can
handle the partitioning table, of course).

I'm not sure what the MS-DOS FST supports.  It might not be able to
deal with the MS-DOS partitioning table (I've only used it with
floppies).
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand