Re: Apple //e HD question

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article pubpc1@library.ucla.edu writes...

>nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:
>>   The major problem with SCSI drives on a //e is that ProDOS
>>partitions are limited to 32MB each, and that ProDOS is limited to 14
>>devices max, with 5.25" drives and anything else counting against
>>that. HFS is not available as a choice for partitions on the
>>//e. Thus, there's an effective maximum usable size for HDs on a //e.
>>The 320MB drive is just about that size if you've got a few other
>>devices in the system.
>
>Nate, correct me if I'm wrong, but can't the RamFAST pick and
>choose which HD partitions show up?  Can't you have theoretically
>50 or more partitions and then choose the 14 volumes that get
>mapped?  I don't have a RamFAST, so I can't verify this, but that's
>what I read.

    One of the limitations of the RamFAST is it can only deal with
a total of 12 partitions, anything beyond that will be ignored. So,
if for example, you handed me a SCSI drive set up with 50 ProDOS
partitions, the RamFAST would show a list of the first 12 and that
is it. You cannot scroll the list, and disabling partitions will
not allow you to swap-in the higher ones.

    When I had my 700 MB drive, I originally wanted to have something
close to two dozen ProDOS partitions (I thought maybe the RamFAST
would do as you suggest above). Since it cannot, I was forced to go
with 8 ProDOS partitions and basically throw-out the remaining 440 MB
(yes, wasted, since HFS on the GS is just not safe _unless_ you have
a Mac with Norton or FWB to maintain it;  I did not so my two HFS
partitions sat empty). Now I have a 330 MB drive, with the same 8
ProDOS partitions and one 72 MB HFS partition (still kind of wasted,
but I don't feel as badly now ;). I kept the total number of partitions
down to nine, incase I one day add a CD-ROM or Zip drive, etc.

    Incidentally, that limit of 12 partitions/devices is in firmware,
so an update could fix that annoyance. Unfortunately, no one is left
at Sequential Systems with enough knowledge to do that kind of rewrite
and it is not really a justifiable cost to hire someone (and look at
the Second Sight, there is a justifiable ROM update that _needs_ to
be done, but they just plain and simply don't care. Don't hold your
breath for a RamFAST ROM update).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca