Re: Now the fun begins...

["Roger Johnstone" <rojaws@es.co.nz>]

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In article <wuPa4.286$Wd4.35146567@alpha.sky.net>, jmholmes@swbell.net
(John) wrote:


>Ok, finally after 3 weeks I finally am up and running with a fully functional 
>//GS running System 6.0.1 with an Apple HD20SC Hard Drive.  
>
>Obviously, this 20 meg hard drive is not going to work for TOO terribly long 
>as the main hard drive on that system (space constraints being the most 
>obvious problem)... 
>
>I've seen several SCSI Hard Drives in the 200-400 meg range on ebay that all 
>say that they have apple ROMS.  I do remember from my Macintosh days that 
>those were the ones to get since you couldn't use the Apple HD Format Utility 
>(or something to that effect) if you didn't have the Apple ROM.  
>
>Does this same limitation apply to the //GS systems or can you just go get any 
>old SCSI hard drive and expect it to work correctly (assuming the drive is 
>functional).  I do have a couple of extra external SCSI drive boxes laying 
>around from my old Mac Plus, though the drives in them are dead.
>
>Looking forward to hearing from the experts!

Good news, as far as I've seen you can use any SCSI hard drive you like on a
IIgs. In fact you can use a IIgs and the Advanced Disk Utilities to format a
non-Apple drive with HFS and a generic Mac driver and use it on a Mac! When
a Mac formats a drive it puts a driver on it in a special invisible
partition. The formatting utilities Apple supplies with the Mac check the
drive model name stored in ROM, if it matches one Apple has ever SOLD (ok,
and tested) they let you format it. I don't think they really have a custom
ROM.


Roger Johnstone
Invercargill
New Zealand
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As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing.