[comp.unix.aux] Using a Wren with A/UX

gmw1@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Gabe M Wiener) (04/18/89)

Hello people.  I'm looking for a 300Mb Wren drive to use for both MacOS and
A/UX.  I've seen them advertised in various incarnations for about $1900.
However, none of the firms advertising them includes partitioning software
that can split it for both A/UX and MacOS.

Now I've been told that it's cake to modify the names of the supported drives
for HD SC Setup with a sector editor and get it to support a drive.  But I'm
still a little dubious to spend $1800 on a drive without knowing that it's
definitely partitionable.

I could buy a MiniScribe with a 30 day money-back return, but I'd much rather
buy a Wren...I've heard they're better drives.  Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks


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kaufman@polya.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) (04/18/89)

In article <8904180533.AA04263@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu> gmw1@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Gabe M Wiener) writes:

>Now I've been told that it's cake to modify the names of the supported drives
>for HD SC Setup with a sector editor and get it to support a drive.  But I'm
>still a little dubious to spend $1800 on a drive without knowing that it's
>definitely partitionable.

I'm with you.  I have done this to HD SC Setup, but in both instances the
setup failed, even though HDSCC could find the drive.  The string you are
modifying is compared against the return from an INQUIRY command.
Unfortunately, this says nothing about the correct Mode Select command blocks,
or Format command block.  It appears in HDSCC 2.0 that there are tables for
these, also.  But I have not tried to go any further.

If you can initialize the drive for a Mac, with any number of partitions, you
can re-partition under A/UX.  It's just the initial formatting that gets you.
(unless you want a Mac partition on the drive, too -- if this is a secondary
drive you may not...)

Marc Kaufman (kaufman@polya.stanford.edu)

granteri@pnet51.cts.com (Grant Erickson) (04/19/89)

Yes, Gabe, MacWren Drives or Imprimis are definitely the best drives
availiable on the market for the Macintosh. I know of someone who has a 344 Mb
Wren IV and it came with a very good driver, and the partitioning software it
came with is excellent. It allows TRUE partitions, whereas some partitioning
programs are just mere representations of a partition. So in this way, you can
have your A/UX and Mac OS partitions. The CDC Swift drives are almost as good,
but since they use 3.5" platters, they are a LITTLE bit less reliable. Hope
this information helps you out.

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