Re: //GS, SCSI, Focus Drive & AE RAM Card

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

jmholmes@swbell.net (John) wrote:

>Ok...  I finally took the plunge and ordered a FocusDrive from AllTech while I

>was also ordering the RAM chips to populate my AE RAM-GS Ultra card...  Here's

>the questions...
>
>The machine itself is a ROM 03 //GS so I presume after getting this card 
>populated with 4 MB and putting it in place of my Apple Ram card currently in 
>there I should end up with a little bit over 5 megs instead of a little bit 
>over 2 megs correct?

Yes.

>Concerning the AE RAM-GS Ultra card, does anyone happen to know what the two 
>28 pin sockets and the 34 pin connector (looks like an Intel style floppy 
>cable plug) are for?

I think they are for a 2MB piggyback card to increase memory further.

>As far as the FocusDrive goes, definately looking forward to getting that but 
>here lies another question or two (maybe more, just depends on how much my 
>brain starts thinking this evening)...
>
>I currently have an Apple HD20SC drive connected to a Rev C Apple SCSI card 
>that is located in slot 7.  Right now, I have no other cards in any slots 
>(except for the RAM card) and was curious if I need to relocate the SCSI card 
>to another slot.  I have two 3.5 floppies and one 5.25 floppy for the machine 
>right now though will probably abandon the 5.25 floppy after I get the new 
>hard drive installed and get the floppies that I want to rescue the data off 
>of from my old days in high school (the oldest 5.25 floppy I have is one from 
>1981/82 school year).

You can put the Focus into slot 4 or slot 2 and reset those cards to
'your card'.  On a ROM 3 under GS/OS, you can keep using the
mouse even if you set slot 4 to 'your card' in the control panel.  Also,
if your communications program is one of the better ones that will
see the modem port even if slot 2 is set to 'your card' you can also
use slot 2 for the Focus.  If you want to boot from the Focus rather
than the Apple HD20SC, you must set the Startup slot to the Focus'
slot.

The beauty of the Focus is that you do not have to power up your
HD20SC before powering up your IIGS.  If you boot from the Focus,
you can have the HD20SC and the IIGS on the same power strip
and power up both at the same time.  Booting the Focus provides
enough delay for the HD20SC to spin up.

>I guess that brings up the next logical question.  Am I actually going to be 
>able to read these 5.25 disks on the //GS running GS/OS? They are in DOS 3.3 
>format.

You can copy files off a IIGS running GS/OS with the DOS 3.3
FST installed, but you cannot run DOS 3.3 programs directly
off DOS 3.3 disks.

There is a program called DOS 3.3 Launcher that lets you run
disk images on a hard disk on the IIGS, much like the
emulators would.  Also, Alltech's web site has software called
FocusDOS that lets you set up a DOS 3.3 partition.  I think
that would indeed allow stuff to be run from GS/OS.

>(SEE, I told you that there might be more than one or two questions)
>
>The files on the HD20SC are all GS/OS or ProDOS programs, at least so far as I

>know.  Is there anything special I need to know to re-locate these files and 
>programs to the Focus?  Is it like the MAC days of old when you could just 
>drag a folder for a program to another disk and it would then run from that 
>disk or are things going to be like on a Windows machine where you have to 
>figure out where any number of given places the installer program puts the 
>files?

IIGS uses dynamic registration like the Mac.  Running the
program the first time installs registration info in a Desktop
file inside the Icons folder of the boot drive.  Thus, you can
move programs around without worry.  You can delete the
Desktop file and it will rebuild itself as you run your
programs.  The IIGS is definitely not Windows-like in
registry behavior (thank goodness).

>The way that my system is set up currently is as follows.
>
>Apple //GS ROM 03 Machine
>
>Slot 1          AppleTalk (though not being used at the moment)
>Slot 2          Modem (again, not being used but will be soon)
>Slot 3          Built in Text Display
>Slot 4          Mouse Port
>Slot 5          Smart Port
>Slot 6          Disk Port
>Slot 7          Your Card (Apple SCSI Rev C Card)
>
>I'm currently running GS/OS (and of course, will be after I get the FocusDrive

>installed) and am possibly planning on using the AppleTalk option to 
>eventually talk to a Macintosh that I will be using to bridge into my Ethernet

>Network.
>
>Ok, I think I have finished with the brain picking for now!  Looking forward 
>to anyone that has any information that might be useful!

As a GS/OS ROM 3 user, slot 4 is immediately "free" for
use with cards.  So is slot 2, but slot 2 depends on what
type of communications programs you are using.  If it is
a commercial one, it will work for sure.  If it is one of the
freeware ones, maybe not.

Thus, drop the Focus drive into slot 4 and reset slot 4 to
'your card' to get the Focus drive up and running.