lindahl@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Charlie Lindahl) (06/12/90)
A friend of mine purchased a SYQUEST 45M removable drive a few months ago. He came over to my place to download some stuff, and we then discovered that the LaCIE formatter/INIT appears not to be compatible with the EHMAN counterparts (EHMAN makes an inexpensive---and reliable---SYQUEST drive). Has anyone else run into this problem? It is NOT meant to be a slight against LaCIE, my friend and I just want to know why there is an apparent compatibility problem (Note: the MEDIUM works just fine between the machines --- the formatting appears to be different). Any pointers would be appreciated. If there is enough interest, I'll post a summary. -- Charlie S. Lindahl Automation and Robotics Research Institute University of Texas at Arlington ARPA: lindahl@evax.utarl.edu
maarten@fwi.uva.nl (Maarten Carels) (06/12/90)
lindahl@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Charlie Lindahl) writes: > A friend of mine purchased a SYQUEST 45M removable drive a few months ago. He > came over to my place to download some stuff, and we then discovered that > the LaCIE formatter/INIT appears not to be compatible with the EHMAN > counterparts (EHMAN makes an inexpensive---and reliable---SYQUEST drive). > Has anyone else run into this problem? It is NOT meant to be a slight against > LaCIE, my friend and I just want to know why there is an apparent compatibility The problem is that LaCie thinks that is is wise to use a non-standard partition map on cartridges created with their SilverLining stuff. To summarize: There are two kinds of partition maps (kind of table on the disks that describes where the driver is, where the data partitions are etc.). Some formatters use the old partition map (as defined in Inside Mac volume IV). Other ones use the new scheme (Inside Mac volume V). Two problems can occur: cartridge made with old map, using driver which only understands new (or the other way around). cartridge made with nonstandard partition map (not one of the two schemes found in Inside Mac). In the first case, the software (INIT in this case) should be upgraded to conform better to IM. The SilverLining people, however, thought that is would be nice to use some non-standard variant of the old partitioning scheme. This means that their cartridges are only usable with their drivers. I can offer you two solutions: 1. Junk the LaCie software and use something better (yes I know that I'm going to be flamed for this :-)). You will then have standard partition maps and cartridges that every other driver can also read. 2. Put the cartridge in the drive and reboot. This will cause the LaCie driver to be loaded. The Lacie driver should be able to read the cartridge. --maarten -- In real life: Maarten Carels Computer Science Department University of Amsterdam email: maarten@fwi.uva.nl
davism@creatures.cs.vt.edu (Mat Davis) (06/13/90)
In article <1059@carol.fwi.uva.nl> maarten@fwi.uva.nl (Maarten Carels) writes: >lindahl@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Charlie Lindahl) writes: > >> A friend of mine purchased a SYQUEST 45M removable drive a few months ago. He >> came over to my place to download some stuff, and we then discovered that >> the LaCIE formatter/INIT appears not to be compatible with the EHMAN >> counterparts (EHMAN makes an inexpensive---and reliable---SYQUEST drive). > >The problem is that LaCie thinks that is is wise to use a non-standard >partition map on cartridges created with their SilverLining stuff. >(...) This means that their cartridges are only usable with their drivers. > What version of SilverLining is this? My La Cie/SyQuest drive just came in a few days ago, and I haven't noticed any problem. I've set up one cartridge for the Mac OS and two for A/UX, and the 'dp' partitioning program under A/UX certainly doesn't seem to have any problem reading the SilverLining partition map (and neither do the A/UX drivers, so far as I've seen). The only thing I've noticed is that the partition type for A/UX in Silver- Lining was "UNIX_SVR2" (or something similar) instead of "Apple_UNIX_SVR2" as A/UX defaults to, but that's certainly not major and SilverLining will let you type in the correct type. And SilverLining certainly beats 'dp' for setting up non-Apple drives for A/UX!!! Mat Davis (davism@vtopus.cs.vt.edu)
maarten@fwi.uva.nl (Maarten Carels) (06/14/90)
davism@creatures.cs.vt.edu (Mat Davis) writes: > In article <1059@carol.fwi.uva.nl> maarten@fwi.uva.nl (Maarten Carels) writes: >>lindahl@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Charlie Lindahl) writes: >> >>> A friend of mine purchased a SYQUEST 45M removable drive a few months ago. He >>> came over to my place to download some stuff, and we then discovered that >>> the LaCIE formatter/INIT appears not to be compatible with the EHMAN >>> counterparts (EHMAN makes an inexpensive---and reliable---SYQUEST drive). >> >>The problem is that LaCie thinks that is is wise to use a non-standard >>partition map on cartridges created with their SilverLining stuff. >>(...) This means that their cartridges are only usable with their drivers. >> > What version of SilverLining is this? My La Cie/SyQuest drive just came in > a few days ago, and I haven't noticed any problem. I've set up one cartridge > for the Mac OS and two for A/UX, and the 'dp' partitioning program under A/UX > certainly doesn't seem to have any problem reading the SilverLining partition > map (and neither do the A/UX drivers, so far as I've seen). (...) Wel, it turns out that newer SilverLining versions are a bit better in this respect (I tried 4.17, which did as I described i.e. using a non- standard partition map that almost no other driver understands). 5.2 which I found also somewhere, makes a more normal partition map. There are some glitches in that version too. On cartridges it thinks it is wise to leave some space free ats the end of the cartridge. Besides, it doesn't allow to mount more than the first two partitions of a cartridge made with other products. So, SilverLining has problems in working with cartridges from other vendors, thus limiting the exchange of cartridges. Possibly their driver doesn't recognise standard old-style partition maps. --maarten -- In real life: Maarten Carels Computer Science Department University of Amsterdam email: maarten@fwi.uva.nl