Re: IIgs Newbie / Anfaenger Fragen PART TWO

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

diengelmann@metronet.de (Dirk Engelmann) wrote:

>Hello!
>
>I have an old IIGS equipped with a Vulcan HD Controller(Rom Version
>VUL 1.4GS20)sitting in slot 7 and an AppleII SCSI Card in slot 6.
>A 20 Meg ide drive is attached to the Vulcan controller, working,
>but slow.=20
>I tried to connect a bigger IDE Disk to the Vulcan controller, but
>somebody told me that the controller only works with the Harddisk it
>was shipped with(Thank You,Supertimer).

It is unfortunate but true.  The Vulcan controller is hardwired for
a particular size so unless the replacement drive is exactly the
same size (number of cylinders and heads), a replacement won't
work.  Or it will work, but still look like a 20MB drive to the Vulcan
controller.

One solution is to look at the various incarnations of the
MicroDrive and Turbo IDE controllers from ///SHH Systeme of
Germany (I don't have their URL handy, but you can find it with
a web search).  I think the base model MicroDrive (which is
a little slower than the top model, but it works) is around $69 US.

>So I turned over to the SCSI Port:
>I want to connect an old 700MB SCSI-II HD in an external case,
>the SCSI-ID is 0 currently.
>The drive LED lights up at boot time, but the drive is completely
>inaccessible.

Might be several reasons.  The Apple High Speed SCSI card
does not provide termination power, so the hard drive must be
set to provide it.  Most, but not all, do and some have been set
to not via jumpers (I've never seen a hard disk with DIP
switches) on the drive.

Another possibility is a termination problem.  The original Apple
SCSI card requires a terminator before the first drive and one
after the last one.  The Apple High Speed SCSI card, on the
other hand, requires only one terminator at the end of the chain.
It is internally terminated at the beginning.

>  - Where do I find software for low and high-level formating and
>    partitioning?

The Apple Disk Utilities (ADU) program on one of the System
6.0.1 disks is the right software.  It does both high level and low
level formatting and partitioning.  To do a low level requires
first repartitioning the drive as a single partitionless volume.  Only
then will ADU low level format.  After that, you can repartition
the drive into the number and sizes of partitions that you like.

>  - Max. Partition sizes?

32MB for the ProDOS file system.  2GB for the HFS file system.

>  - Any Filesystems preferred(PRODS vs. HFS)?

I'd go with two 32MB ProDOS partitions and the rest as two
or three HFS partitions.  That's the way my 1GB hard drive is
set up.  HFS is more flexible and you'll find yourself using it
more.  Having more than one HFS partitions allows you to back
up one partition onto another.  You'll need at least one ProDOS
partition to boot the system on.  A second ProDOS partition is
nice for storing older 8-bit software (only 16-bit software runs
from HFS).

>In Slot 1, there is a Grappler+ (ROM V3.3)card with a centronics cable
>attached, and on the other hand, I have a little serial-->parallel
>converter Box which fits into the Mini-DIN printer port of the IIgs.
>
>  - Which port should I use?

I use such a converter box connected to my printer port.  This
frees up slot 2.

>  - Can I connect any Centronics printer to the IIgs?

Pretty much, as long as you have a driver for it.

I use a Canon BubbleJet printer using the Epson LQ drivers from
the Harmonie printer package.  There is an Epson FX driver that
comes from Apple and an LQ driver that's freeware...best to avoid
those two.  Their quality is low.  The Harmonie Epson LQ drivers
generate true 360 dpi x 360 dpi.  The Epson Stylus line of printers
have also been tested to work with the Harmonie Epson LQ drivers,
but only in black and white and grayscale, not in color.  The
Harmonie package also includes DeskJet drivers (which also work
with DeskWriters) and LaserJet laser printer drivers.

You can get the Harmonie package from Shareware Solutions II:

http://www.concentric.net/~joko

>  - I have several old dot matrix(Epson FX/RX80 compatible, I assume)
>    printers, an HP DJ compatible Olivetti printer(B/W) and a
>    lexmark color Inkjet printer
>
>    Which one might fit best?

The Olivetti would be the best choice, then.  All you need is the
Harmonie DeskJet drivers.

>  - Do I need Drivers for the printers or for the grappler card?

Yes.  The Harmonie driver package has the necessary printer
drivers and parallel card drivers, including the grappler.  If
you want to use the serial to parallel converter, Harmonie also
includes a 56k serial port driver, which will drastically speed
up printing.