Re: self-test GS /scsi

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

cornelio@san.rr.com (Louis Cornelio) wrote:

>Supetimer wrote:
>
>>Hi Louis, use System 6.0.1 on the IIGS and ADU to format an *HFS*
>>Zip disk.  In order for this Zip disk to work on a Mac, you need a utility
>>called GenEx to put the internal ADU Mac driver on the Zip disk.
>
>I think I did format the drive w/ ADU. But you're right, I got a msg. that
>there were "no mac drivers found" or somesuch.

Let me explain what is going on.  Inside the resource fork of ADU is
a Mac SCSI driver.  Each mass storage device on a Mac requires a
driver stored in its own driver partition.  These partitions are small,
as in about 64k, and they are of course not mounted on the Mac
desktop.  Their sole purpose is to store the driver.

ADU is great at installing this driver because it names the partition
a name that the IIGS Finder recognizes as a Mac driver partition
so it gets hidden.

The main problem is that ADU *always* checks for an Apple ROM
on the SCSI storage device.  If an Apple ROM is not present, it
does not install the driver in the resource fork.  Instead, it looks for
a third party *Mac* SCSI driver in the IIGS' system disk's drivers
folder.

Now this sucks.  The ADU driver is generic and works on all the
hard drives I've tried it on and also on Zip drives, but Apple in its
infinite wisdom prevented it from installing on non-Apple drives!

Enter the GenEx program.  GenEx extracts the generic Mac SCSI
driver from ADU's resource fork and puts it into the IIGS' drivers
folder.  Thus, when ADU looks in that folder, it finds and installs the
driver and does not give the "no mac driver found" error.

>I had another disk that was formatted on a non G3-mac. It read fine on the
>GS but no 800k+ transger would work.
>Well, it didn't read fine, I got a few "unrecognized" msgs format? eject?

The IIGS is Finder is choking on the Mac driver partitions.  Here
is the reason.

Somewhere down the line since the release of IIGS System 6.0
and System 6.0.1, MacOS changed the name of the Mac driver
partition!  Thus, the IIGS Finder no longer marks Mac driver
partitions as invisible and since no FST can recognize the Mac
driver partitions, you get the "unrecognized" message.

HOWEVER, current MacOS *does* recognize *ADU* created
driver partitions.  IIGS Finder also hides ADU created ones.  Thus,
when sharing an HFS volume between a Mac and a IIGS, you
should ALWAYS use ADU and GenEx to format it first.

>whch I clicked format * ended upp w/ a few 64k or gerater proods
>partitions. This off the HFS volume. It seems like an HFS vol. is not
>"fully" initialized & so the GS want to make sense of the few remaining k,
>if that makes sense.....

Yup, sounds like the Mac driver partitions.  Naturally, if you format
the partitions, that's going to cause problems on the Mac later on!

>>Once this is done, use *HFS* disks to copy between GS and Mac.
>>That will solve your problems.  The Mac does not treat ProDOS Zip
>>volumes properly so your IIGS will have problems with one touched
>>by a Mac.
>
>I wish this were a solution, but one zip disk I tried *was"* formatted on
>the mac.

Hence the problem.  Either HFS or ProDOS, shared GS/Mac
disks should be formatted on the IIGS simply because the
IIGS tends to provide a format that is acceptable to both platforms
while the Mac tends to ignore the needs of the IIGS.

>>If you need the GenEx utility, let me know and I'll provide a URL for you
>
>ok, if you think that will help......

Read about GenEx here:

http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/upl98/Feb98/GenEx.shk.txt

And download it here:

ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/upl98/Feb98/GenEx.shk

I'm pretty sure it will solve all your problems.  Good luck!