[comp.sys.atari.st] How To Partition Megafile 30 for ST/PC/Mac s/ware

ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) (02/23/90)

Hi. I am sure these questions have been asked (and answered) previosuly but
I have no other source to ask....

I have the Mega4, Megafile30 and color & B/W monitors.  I need to be able to 
partition the hard drive so that I have 2 ST partitions for work and music
s/ware and one each for PC-Ditto and Mac s/ware. How do I go about doing it.

Another question...before the hard drive I had a RAMDISK program in my auto
qwfoldewhich gave me a C: Ramdisk.  Now that I had formatted the Megafile
as 4 ST partitions of C, D, E and F I reinstalled the RAMDISK as G but it
does not work.  Is the RAMDISK supposed to be logically before the Hard drive
partitions?  So do I have to re-format the HD with new drive letters?

Please oblige with your help. thanks.

Imran

hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) (02/25/90)

In article <1990Feb23.070236.20529@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) writes:
> Hi. I am sure these questions have been asked (and answered) previosuly but
> I have no other source to ask....
> 
> I have the Mega4, Megafile30 and color & B/W monitors.  I need to be able to 
> partition the hard drive so that I have 2 ST partitions for work and music
> s/ware and one each for PC-Ditto and Mac s/ware. How do I go about doing it.
> 

PC-Ditto will use any TOS partition.  It would prefer to muck with C:.
(See below also.).  MAC, if done by Spectre or Magic Sac, will  gladly take
a TOS partition (empty I hope), destroy it, and make it its own.  At which
time it will be known as ACK.  SO,

You must have a partition for MAC, and at least one for TOS/PC-Ditto.
Because of how MAC uses partitions I would recommend:

30 Meg total:
	First for TOS, will be called C: 10 meg or so
	Second for TOS, will be called D: 9 meg or so.  Or just one for 19 Meg.
(16 meg max  for TOS 1.1)  Use TOS for  PC-Ditto.
	Third for MAC, 1 meg: used to 'boot' up mac. -- read manual.
	Forth for MAC, 9 meg: or more; use for data storage. (The more the better).

> Another question...before the hard drive I had a RAMDISK program in my auto
> qwfoldewhich gave me a C: Ramdisk.  Now that I had formatted the Megafile
> as 4 ST partitions of C, D, E and F I reinstalled the RAMDISK as G but it
> does not work.  Is the RAMDISK supposed to be logically before the Hard drive
> partitions?  So do I have to re-format the HD with new drive letters?


The letters are assigned by TOS and the driver.  It is not in the partitioning.
First TOS partition is C:
Second TOS partition is D:
If the partitions are labeled in a different order, first TOS means just that,
not the FIRST one.

A Ramdisk must be COMPILED or CONFIGURED for is letter.  if you want it to be
G:, and do not know how to configure it, its probably hardwired to be C:.  

Get another RAMDISK.

Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
=====NEW address====
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com

bro@sicilia.rice.edu (Douglas Monk) (02/28/90)

In article <1328@lzsc.ATT.COM> hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
>In article <1990Feb23.070236.20529@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) writes:
[re. using hard drive partitions for PC and Macintosh emulators...]
>30 Meg total:
>	First for TOS, will be called C: 10 meg or so
>	Second for TOS, will be called D: 9 meg or so.  Or just one for 19 Meg.
>(16 meg max  for TOS 1.1)  Use TOS for  PC-Ditto.
>	Third for MAC, 1 meg: used to 'boot' up mac. -- read manual.
>	Forth for MAC, 9 meg: or more; use for data storage. (The more the better).

This is the method for using partitions for Magic Sac: for Spectre, you only
needd one partition. Magic Sac (with 64K ROMs) needs a small MAC partition (as
small as you can get - I used a 300K partition) in MFS mode, which will
contain a system and finder and a Hard Disk patch, used only long enough to 
boot from a second MAC partition in HFS mode. Spectre (with 128K ROMs) 
understands HFS partitions directly, and doesn't need the first "boot-strap" 
partition. Thus, the drive might be set up:
		With Magic Sac			With Spectre
Partition 1	10 meg GEM=TOS C:		10 meg GEM=TOS C:
	  2	10 meg GEM=TOS D:, MS-DOS	10 meg GEM=TOS D:, MS-DOS
	  3	.3 meg ACK=MFS Mac bootstrap	10 meg ACK=HFS Mac boot
	  4	9.7 meg ACK=HFS real Mac boot

>> [re: ramdisk now not working as G:]
There is a *possibility* that the problem may be due to an odd bug, if you
are using a hard drive with one of Atari's early host adapters, and also using
some particular hard disk driver. The effect of the bug is for all (or most)
of the TOS drive letters to be marked in use on bootup. Most ramdisks will only
install if their drive letter is free (on coldboot) (with some reset-proof ones
also checking to make sure their letter is marked (on warmboot)). If the bug
is present in your particular setup, you need something to set or clear the
drive letter mask. I have a program that will do that, and can also be used to
see to what the drive letter mask is set so you can test for the bug. Send me
email if you want a copy.

>Get another RAMDISK.

Might or might not work, if the problem is this particular bug. For those
others in the audience, if your ramdisks work, you don't have the problem.

>Howard C. Johnson

Doug Monk (bro@rice.edu)

Disclaimer: These views are mine, not necessarily my organization's.