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Re: IIGS - Mac - ProDos

sundown@nwrain.net wrote:

On Feb 27, 12:24 am, "biel...@terra.es" <biel...@terra.es> wrote:


On Feb 25, 2:14 am, sund...@nwrain.net wrote:





Thanks for the advice but I should have been more specific.  I am
trying to
access a CF card from a USB card reader.  The card has IIGS files
saved
on it and is formatted with ProDos.



I have read the CF card will mount if I have the files I mentioned
installed.



So even though your advice is good and will work as you say it doesn't
solve my problem.  I have heard if I have the files I mentioned then I
can mount the CF card using MAC OS 9 and below but not MAC OS X.
That will work for me but I need the files to do it.



thanks again,
-=>JB<=-


After reading your post, yesterday, I did a few experiments. I had an
empty CF to play with, and a G4 with OS9.2.2. There was no way to tell
the OS that such a device was to be formatted in ProDos. I tried with
the Finder, Disk Utility, Hard disk Toolkit, LaCie SilverLining,
Formatter One Pro, etc. I tried it all with the CF card connected to
the CD's ATA bus, via FW and via USB. I tried both PC exchange v2.2.1
(Old version, from OS8.1), and with the "File Exchange" control panel
that comes with OS9.2.2. I think that the OS refuses to format it as a
Prodos disk because it is a 256 Mb (too big for ProDos) device.
The standard OS9.2.2 installation deals with ProDos disks ok, though.
If, for example, you create a disk image of *less than* 32 Mb, it will
allow you to format it in ProDos, and to mount it as a read/write
volume. Or if you insert a 3.5 diskette (my usb disk drive does not
deal with 800/400k formats) you'll be able to create 720, 1440k Prodos
formatted disks...
The last thing I tried was to drop into the extensions folder the
*much older* ProDos filesystem extension that comes as part of the
Apple IIe LC card software package (*). I then restarted, and voila !
The Finder asked me I wanted to create a... 256 Mb. ProDos volume !!
Obviosly, not even a Mac can create a 256 ProDos volume, so in fact it
didn't work, but, the point is, that maybe, if the card had been
properly formatted in ProDos at this point, it would have been mounted
on the destop by this Prodos File extension. Or not. Or hanged.

OTOH, if the card is properly formatted in ProDos, why is it not being
mounted on the desktop by a standard OS9.2.2 installation ?

My best guesses are :

1.- The CF does not have recognizable filesystem that the MacOS can
understand. It tries to match what is in the first blocks of the
device to one of the filesystems that it understands. Usually a Mac
style formatted disk or an MSDOS formatted disk. if the ProDos Volume
started at the very first byte of the CF, (as happens with a CFFA
formatted CF), there's a big chance that the MacOS recognized it. If
not, there's no chance at all.

2.- Less likely, the problem can be that although the CF is formatted
ok (ok in this case means that there's nothing in the CF before the
ProDos volume), somehow the OS refuses to admit that a 256Mb device
could be a ProDos volume. This is what the use of the older "ProDos
file extension" seems to forget to check..

Jorge.

(*) The software is in <http://www.info.apple.com/support/
oldersoftwarelist.html>



It sounds like you found a way to do what I wanted.  I have an old
LCIII with
the IIe card and software that I haven't used in years.  I guess I
will have to
dig it out and put a new battery in it so I can get the Prodos file
extension.
Were there any files I need that you know of besides the Prodos
extension?

By the way the CF card is 256MB and has 8 Prodos partitions on it.
They
were formatted on a IIGS while the card was installed in a MicroDrive.

Do you know where I can download the Prodos extension so I don't have
to
dig out my LCIII and get it running?


Unfortunately, that isn't going to work.

There is no way that the Mac can know that the non-standard MicroDrive
partition table is written to the first few blocks of the device.

Unless you write a custom driver, a Mac will never be able to mount
the device as 8 ProDOS volumes.

The Mac *requires* that partitioned volumes have a *Mac standard*
partition table (in its own partition!) written to the device, and
such a table contains a Mac driver for the device!

Needless to say, any card with a Mac standard partition table could
not be mounted to any Apple II CF-capable controller.

Unless you can coax the Mac into allowing access as a *raw* device,
and then can use another application to "treat" the raw device (or
an image of it) as a MicroDrive-partitioned drive, you won't be able
to access this CF card from a Mac.

If it were not for the exstence of CiderPress, and the ability of
Windows XP to allow raw access to a device, the PC wouldn't be able
to make sense of such a volume either.  Andy has done a wonderful
thing in creating CiderPress.  For the PC, it's an Apple II "Rosetta
stone", enabling bidirectional information movement between the Apple
II world and the rest of the world.

Combined with PC addons to access Mac-formatted drives, CiderPress
connects the entire "modern" world with the Apple II.

It's unfortunate that there is no equivalent functionality for Mac
users.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."