Re: What kind of SCSI drives can be used on the GS?

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

In article <199410170520.AAA29279@fullfeed.fullfeed.com>,
Bradley VonHaden <bpvh@fullfeed.com> wrote:
> 
> Not quite sure about SCSI or SCSI-2 with a Apple HS SCSI.  Isn't
> SCSI-2 downward compatible?

Yes, for the most part.  SCSI-2 is stricter in some areas.  I'm using
a Quantum LPS240 drive on my Apple HS SCSI, and it is supposedly a
SCSI-2 drive.  It is the best drive I've ever used on this machine.

> With the Apple HS the drive might need to supply termination power to
> the SCSI chain (some Apple HS cards supply termination power, some do
> not). 

I still don't believe that the standard Apple II power supply has
enough grunt to supply termination power to the SCSI bus.  In theory,
it needs up to 480 mA from the 5V rail, and there is only a nominal
500 mA available for use of all cards in the standard slots.

My Quantum drive supplies termination power, so there is no problem in
my case.

> Other than 'NFS' (?), why do you need the size?  The Apple HS can
> only handle 8 partitions per drive so you would need to use some HFS
> partitions on a gig drive.

Where did you get the 8 partition limit from?  I haven't found any
documentation which says there is a specific limit.  There may be a
limitation of some partitioning programs (e.g. ADU may not allow more
than 8 user partitions).  The Apple HS SCSI card firmware supports a
maximum of 111 volumes (partitions spread over all drives), or
thereabouts, and the GS/OS SCSI drivers probably support 64, if not
more.

> Some people have reported a lot of problems with HFS partitions,
> other people have reported none at all. 

I fall into the latter category.  I don't do a lot of data shuffling
on my HFS partition - it is mainly for accessing archived data, and
adding to existing information and files.  I have a copy of most of my
System 6.0 Golden Master CD-ROM on there, for example.