Re: Apple IIe - Partition and Format a Hard drive on a Focus IDE card

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Henry S. Courbis wrote:
> Hello Steve.
>
>
> > Can someone please help me. I have a focus hard drive card. the
> > orginal
> > hard drive died. I installed a new drive but that's all I can do. I
> > can't figure out how to partition and format the new drive on my
> > Apple IIe.
>
>
> I have a 128 Meg CF Card that's partitioned 30, 30, 30, 30 Megs.  If you'd 
> like a copy I could send it along with a CF Adapter.  May be good excuse to 
> 'upgrade' to CF.
>
> Here's the links: 
> http://www.reactivemicro.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_24&products_id=56
>
> and
>
> http://www.reactivemicro.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_24&products_id=40
>
> Order both and leave a message in the comments section for me to load the CF 
> Card for the Focus with the Image I have.  Then when you receive the CF Card 
> and Adapter it will be 'plug and play' ready.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> PS - Anyone ever going to rewrite that awful utility so 'normal' people can 
> use it?  The Focus is a great card, but that utility is enough to make you 
> want to throw the card out the window.

About a decade ago, I had the same problem and offered to take a look at
the utility with the aim of creating a //e version.  I found the source
so complex and inpenetrable (I'm not a IIgs programmer) that I gave up
and used a IIgs for partitioning!  ;-(

I worked on a //e partitioning utility for a SCSI drive once, and it
was quite easy, but I couldn't even identify the data structures
being dealt with, they were so obscured by GUI code!

It's a great example of using a cannon to shoot a mouse.

-michael

NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

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