Re: Formatting HFS on IIGS

[mattd@apple.com (Matt Deatherage)]

In article <1992Dec10.055016.2476@r-node.gts.org>, taob@r-node.gts.org
(Brian Tao) wrote:
> 
>     So if some enterprising hacker made a binary dump of the APPLE_DRIVER
> partition and saved it to a file called "GenericMacSCSI" on a GS, will
> ADU work properly?  Will Apple sue the heck out of whoever tries to do
> that?  :)

Somewhere we've gotten this all confused.  Back to square one.

On the IIgs, devices work with GS/OS if they have ProDOS-compatible
firmware built into the interface, or if they have loaded drivers, which
are files of a given format placed in the */System/Drivers directory.
Apple provides a driver named SCSIHD.DRIVER that works for most SCSI hard
drives, though it's obviously not tested with all of the ones that exist.

On the Macintosh, the driver for a SCSI hard drive is contained in its
own partition on the hard drive to be "driven."  The code is in a partition
of type APPLE_DRIVER.  Apple's "HD SC Setup" utility creates this driver
for _Apple_ hard drives only; Apple doesn't provide a generic SCSI hard
disk
driver for the Macintosh, though some third parties do (Hard Disk Toolkit,
Silver Lining, etc.).

Since the Macintosh requires this driver, when you do HFS stuff ADU will
let you put a generic Macintosh SCSI driver in such a partition -- except
you have to come up with one to do it, because Apple doesn't have one (or
we would have given it to you).  If you don't do this, you might not be
able to use the hard disk with a Macintosh.

If you dump an APPLE_DRIVER partition (and you'd have to do it yourself,
because GS/OS doesn't make that partition available as a volume of any
kind so you can't use DRead/DWrite to get to it), you'll have a driver --
but unless you know where the driver came from, you don't know how
generic it is.  If you did it from a hard disk prepared with HD SC Setup,
you'd get a driver that's only been tested with Apple's hard disks, for
example.

So while the technical answer is "yes", you need to think more carefully
about what you want to do.  Chances are that if you ordered a hard drive
from a "Macintosh" firm and if it came already formatted that the driver
partition was already on it.  That may not help you now, but it might if
you buy another one.  :)

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Matt Deatherage, Developer Support Center, Apple Computer, Inc.
Personal mail only -- please POST technical questions, questions about
Apple and its policies, where to find documents and related inquiries.
The opinions I express don't represent Apple, which makes us both happy.
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