Re: Focus Drive //e woes

[wkatz@nyx.net (William Katz)]

Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
>> I think I will get that too, and a CF card as well.  Of course, that will 
>> still leave me with having to find a way to partition it for use with my 
>> Focus Card.
>> 
>> Why was that Focus Utility only made for the //gs?  One would think there 
>> should be something for the //e? Oh well.
> 
> I asked the same question of Tony Diaz in the 1990's.   It seemed
> strange to offer a drive for the //e that couldn't be maintained
> on the //e.

Exactly. That was a bad business decision.

> I offered to convert it to run on the //e if he had the source.  He sent
> it and, when I took a look, I found something so bloated and foreign to
> the //e that I would have had to start from scratch.
> 
> Since 99% of the voluminous code is just managing the quirky
> GUI interface, and the only end result is writing out a block
> containing the partition table, it shouldn't be too hard to do
> on a //e.  But at the time, I recall having a hard time even
> *finding* the structure and content of the partition table!
> (I should try to find those files and see if I can figure it
> out now...)

Maybe you can try again and successfully port it to the //e? :)

>> Maybe I should consider getting a MicroDrive from SHH? I think they 
>> provide a way to partition drives in an Apple //e?
> 
> That's a way to avoid the problem...and one of the reasons why
> I expected a //e partitioning capability for the Focus.

Well, my ibm dhaa-2270 172mb drive looks like it finally went dead. I'm 
glad I was able to get all the data off of it in time.  Now I will see 
about this CF solution for the Focus.


-- 
William D. Katz "a good skier"

Internet: wkatz@nyx.net