Re: Hard Drive Questions

[moxie@panix.com (Mark Mentovai)]

David Empson (dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz) wrote:
: In article <3ciob6$9jp@panix2.panix.com>,
: Mark Mentovai <moxie@panix.com> wrote:
: > I think I'm going to treat myself to a hard drive for Christmas, but I'm 
: > unsure of a few minor points:
: > 
: > - I remember reading somewhere that ProDOS can only access two 
: > partitions.  Is this correct?

: No.  ProDOS-8 1.9 and earlier can only access two partitions, unless the
: SCSI card is in slot 5, in which case it can access four partitions.
: With a RAMFast card, this limitation is removed anyway.

: ProDOS-8 2.0 and later can access up to 14 volumes in total, and
: SmartPort partitions will be remapped to unused slot/drive numbers.
: Two can be supported directly on the slot containing the card.  To
: determine how many extra partitions you can have, count how many slots
: you have that contain no disk interface cards of any kind (e.g. serial
: cards and parallel cards don't count) and multiply this by two.  The
: auxiliary memory RAM disk also counts, so subtract one for this.

I'm using ProDOS 2.0.3, so my SCSI card can be in any slot.  (Would slot 
seven be a viable option?  If not, would my Disk ][ drives work in slot 5 
if I put the SCSI in slot 6?)  And what exactly is SmartPort?  Will I 
have to configure anything, or will the partitions automatically be 
remapped?

: > - I also remember that ProDOS places a limit on the maximum size of each 
: > partition.  How large does it accept?

: 32 megabytes per partition (65535 blocks, which is 32767.5 kilobytes).

Since I have six slots without any disk controllers, then I should be 
able to get a maximum of 394MB hard disk and partition it into twelve 32MB 
sections, right?  (Normally I would only get a small disk but since it's 
SCSI it will work with my next computer...if I ever get one, right?)

: > - What software will I need to format and partition the drive?  It must 
: > be compatible with an Apple //e (enhanced), since that's all I have.

: The RamFAST card includes partitioning software in its ROMdisk, I
: believe, which should be able to handle anything.

Does anyone know anything else about this?  Does the RAMFAST card support 
more than four partitions?

: > - What is the best deal on a SCSI card for the //e?

: Probably a second hand Apple card.  The RAMFast card is considerably
: faster, but also more expensive.  The original Apple SCSI card is the
: slowest one, but should also be cheapest.

Thank you very much, Mr. Empson!  As usual, your knowledge of the Apple 
II will be a great help to me.

-Mox
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