Re: Q: Apple High & RamFast SCSI cards...

[ntt@cleese.apana.org.au (Jonathan Pratt)]

dpfarrer@CAP.GWU.EDU (Daniel Pfarrer) writes:
> I'd like to switch from a Apple High Speed SCSI card to a RamFast 1MB
> card, hmm.. if i did just switch the two, would the current data on my hd
> need to be re-formatted & will it be lost??? Has anyone ever done this before?

I didn't seem to have any trouble when I switched over, and I have another
drive which I at times switch between the two, and it doesn't seem to have
difficulties (I have both cards in my GS - HS & rev D).

The RamFAST uses some of the unused blocks (that are otherwise reserved by
the drive for 'replacing' bad blocks methinx) for housekeeping information
on the writable drive (ie not a CD ROM drive) with the highest SCSI id. 
This information is about what drives / preferences / password you have
selected.  Otherwise it treats the drive exactly like the HS SCSI card,
but cacheing makes somethings go much faster. 

btw, when you write to the drive, you actually write to the cache, which
is dumped to the drive slightly later.  It bothers me sometimes that this
is so as I might turn the computer off after I've finished a save, but
before its actually written.  Not a problem if you use a utility to park
the heads, instead of relying on the HDD's auto park mechanism...

cheers
ntt@cleese.apana.org.au