Re: Using 3.5" IDE drive with AIIe

[ntohsepuasmch@centurytel.net (Theusch Family)]

On Fri, 24 Nov 2000 22:30:31 -0000,
salfter@salfter.ncc74656.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter) wrote:

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>In article <8vlh7i$duo$1@merope.saaf.se>, Paul Schlyter <pausch@saaf.se> wrote:
>>In article <975007562.807345@chakotay.ncc74656.org>,
>>Scott Alfter <salfter@salfter.ncc74656.dyndns.org> wrote:
>>> What's the problem here?  ProDOS supports partition sizes up to 32 megs. 
>>> Split your 110-meg hard drive four ways and you're done.
>
>>The problem is that ProDOS most certainly don't have built-in support
>>for homemade IDE cards
>
>True...I assumed that the original poster planned to use an off-the-shelf
>IDE card, like one of SHH's cards (TurboIDE?) or the controller for an AE
>Vulcan.
>
>>Also, "partitioning" can be done in many ways -- it's merely a
>>software convention of splitting up the HD into several logical
>>areas.  Does ProDOS support the PC conventions for partitioning
>>harddisks, or does ProDOS use its own conventions?
>
>I believe that, at least up to a point, it leaves partitioning to the
>controller card.  The RamFAST and Apple cards use the same type of partition
>table as the Macintosh, but that's SCSI.  CMS used hard partitioning that
>was set by jumpers; this scheme was limited to drives of 64 megs or less. 
>As for what Apple II IDE controllers support, that's anybody's guess. 
>(Could be Mac-style, could be x86-style, could be something completely
>different.)
>
>>When the 5 MByte Corvus harddisks first appeared, it was usually
>>partitioned into zillions of Apple DOS partitions, each 140 KBytes large,
>>to mimic an Apple II DOS floppy -- that partitioning was certianly obtained
>>in a way incompatible with the partitioning of most IDE harddisks today.
>
>I can't say I've ever seen one of those, but I saw a hard drive hooked into
>a CoCo about 16 or 17 years ago that divvied up the drive into a bunch of
>tiny, floppy-sized partitions.  
>
>  _/_
> / v \
>(IIGS(  Scott Alfter (remove Voyager's hull number for email address)
> \_^_/  http://salfter.dyndns.org
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If I would plan to do this, I would definitely use one off the shelf.
I have neither the know-how or motivation to create one of my own.
And I would use 3.5" IDE drives since they are readily available to me
and I can obtain them for free (my friend has about 20 in small sizes
pulled from old 386 or earlier machines).

Would partitioning information come with the documentation on the
controller card?

Thanks for the insight.
larva_jt1@yahoo.com