Re: HELP! Windoze ZIP disks on a IIgs?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff) wrote:

>Okay, so I have this ZIP drive hooked up to my trusty IIgs.  I've got a
>ProDOS formatted ZIP disk, and it mounts and functions beautifully.  I'm
>using GS/OS 6.0.1.  So I know the Zip drive is working.
>
>I also have the MS-DOS FST installed.
>
>So I have this ZIP disk that was Macintosh formatted when it came from
>Iomega.  Since I was using it on a Windows '95-OSR-2 machine, I used the
>Windows machine to format the disk for Windows, presumably using FAT. 
>This is, of course, because Windows '95 cannot recognize anything that
>isn't FAT-16 or FAT-32.
>
>The Windoze box in question does have FAT-32 installed, and has hard
>drives formatted with both FAT-16 and FAT-32.  No option was given when
>the Zip disk was formatted; I am assuming that it is formatted with FAT-16.
>
>When I took the Zip disk home and stuck it into the Zip drive on my IIgs,
>I got the usual sound indicating that a disk is mounting, and
>then...nothing.  No new icon on the desktop, no warning message, no
>error...nothing at all.  Neither Finder nor File-A-Trix sees the Zip disk
>(presumably \PIC) in the drive.
>
>Okay, gurus, what am I forgetting?  I do have the MS-DOS FST installed,
>and it is not checked as 'inactive'.  I have never before attempted to use
>it, however.  Oh, and I am using...at any rate I think I am
>using...Richard Bennett's Floptical SCSI driver, a move which dramatically
>improved my system stability after I installed the Zip drive.
>
>Tips?  Comments?  I was hoping to upload some stuff from this Zip disk
>tonight...

Hi Dave, the MS-DOS FST does not work with MS-DOS mass
storage devices.  According to Peter Watson, author of MUG!,
the MS-DOS FST is incapable of recognizing MS-DOS data
on a storage medium with an MS-DOS partition map.  On
MS-DOS hard drives and Zip drives, even if there is only a
single partition, an MS-DOS partition map is still present (this
is different from an SCSI partition map).  Thus, the MS-DOS
FST does not work.

That's why Peter Watson wrote MUG!.  MUG! is a desk
accessory for the IIGS that confers on the IIGS the functionality
of PC Exchange for the Mac!  It allows the IIGS to read AND
WRITE MS-DOS Zip disks!

Read about it here:

http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/System/Ndas/mug101.txt

Download MUG! here:

ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/System/Ndas/mug101.bxy

Install MUG! and you will be reading and writing your
MS-DOS Zip disks in no time!  One small note: you'll
want to run MUG! from within a program other than Finder.
Teach, for example.  This is explained in the read me file.

Send in the shareware fee and Peter will send you an
updated version of MUG! that FORMATS Zip disks when
he gets it out the door.  ;-)