[comp.sys.mac.misc] Making my mac wait for my hd to get up to speed?

6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) (06/21/91)

ok, i've searched through my listings of umich archives, and of the
local bbses around town, and i can't seem to find it.

i remember hearing about an init that would make my computer wait to
boot until my slow (CMS 20 meg) hard drive was up to speed. That way i
can stop using the stupid scsi control panel device to mount it. (i'm
trying to get my 2si to run off of a single switch--the power key on
the keyboard.)

i've tried wiring (sic) Quickkeys (v.1.2.1) and the Quicktimer cdev 
to activate the Mountem FKey (v. 1.5) at startup but it doesn't work because 
Mountem seems to be flakey w/ my sys.  it's done very strange things to my 
hard drive that have required me to rebuild the desktop.

i'm running a 2si w/ 5 megs, 40 meg internal, 20 meg cms, logitech
scanman (16) plugged in at the end of the scsi daisy chain (so it had
to be on for the hd to be recognized at all), system 6.0.7 (i'm
anti-seven until i have all the upgrades), and a BUNCH of inits/cdevs
that i'd love to tell you all about, but don't want to take up any
more bandwidth...

oh yeah...one other question, while i'm here remembering it.  i've
jerry-rigged an old ibm video extension cord (like a power extension
cord for an ibm) so that the three-pronged ac output from my si is turned 
into a double socketed ac outlet (it's actually an old wall socket
that i had lying around). i had to rig this up because i bought a 12"
monitor (darnit, i should have waited for the pivot!!) it only has a 
regular ac plug, and i KNEW that the power supply could handle a 13"
monitor, so i just converted the plug. But should i be doing this with
two devices (it'd be nice to have a one-switch system)? Is the power
output plug a straight through AC that is only switched on by the
computer, or, does it actually go through the power supply?

i.e.--can i continue doing what i'm doing w/o fear that someday my
computer will blow up from overload?

thanks a lot...				Darryl Lee
					6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu

price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu (John Price) (06/21/91)

In article <12145@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) writes:
>i remember hearing about an init that would make my computer wait to
>boot until my slow (CMS 20 meg) hard drive was up to speed. 

I see this question a lot.  I must be doing something terribly wrong, since 
I've never had to wait for my hard drive to spin up before turning on my 
Mac.  I have a mac+ with 4Meg, a Syquest drive, and systems 6.0.5 and 7.0, 
depending on which cartridge I'm using.  The Syquest drive is the boot 
drive.

To anyone who knows:  why do some hard drives need to come up to speed 
before the mac, and others not?

           John Price * * * * price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu
           Where there is no solution, there is no problem.

6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) (06/21/91)

In article <0094A6A8.B6394460@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu> price@uclapp.physics.
ucla.edu (John Price) writes:

>In article <12145@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) writes:
>>i remember hearing about an init that would make my computer wait to
>>boot until my slow (CMS 20 meg) hard drive was up to speed. 

>I see this question a lot.  I must be doing something terribly wrong, since 
>I've never had to wait for my hard drive to spin up before turning on my 
>Mac.  I have a mac+ with 4Meg, a Syquest drive, and systems 6.0.5 and 7.0, 
>depending on which cartridge I'm using.  The Syquest drive is the boot 
>drive.

>To anyone who knows:  why do some hard drives need to come up to speed 
>before the mac, and others not?

no no no...

i have a iisi (as the rest of my post pointed out), that has an
INTERNAL 40 meg HD.  What happens is that THAT HD boots before my 20
meg is up to speed and gets mounted.

on a mac+, your ONLY scsi device is your hard drive. the computer will
sit there with a flashing disk icon until a drive comes on line (i.e.
your hd spins up), at which point the smiling mac will appear.

i'm not trying to boot from the 20 meg, i just want it to be mounted
when i get to my desktop. so again, i need an init or something that
will make my computer wait to start starting up, or is this possible?
(does the system check for scsi devices before inits? what if i use
the force mount init, which will mount all available devices at
startup (but my drive still wouldn't be available--still spinning up,
so i need the delay thing still))

confused? me too.. :}

				--Darryl
				  6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu

jackb@MDI.COM (Jack Brindle) (06/21/91)

In article <12145@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) writes:
>i remember hearing about an init that would make my computer wait to
>boot until my slow (CMS 20 meg) hard drive was up to speed. 

I'm really not trying to flame the originator, but...  Can someone explain
to me just how a piece of code residing on the boot disk can be
executed before the boot disk is mounted? I suspect that this wierd
rumor started as part of an April fools joke.

As I recall, there was a problem on the original Mac Plus that caused
the plus to repeatedly reset the scsi bus while scanning for bootable
drives. Some drives would react to the reset, recalibrate, and take
even longer to come up. This was fixed when the platinum pluses came
out, and the ROMs were slightly changed (just 13 bytes as I recall).
Now it should actually wait for a slow drive, and come up when the
drive is ready (as long as another bootable drive isn't found first).

JackB.
ham radio: wa4fib/7

oleary@ux.acs.umn.edu (Doc O'Leary) (06/22/91)

In article <1991Jun21.163417.24604@MDI.COM> jackb@MDI.COM (Jack Brindle) writes, among other things:

>In article <12145@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) writes:
>>i remember hearing about an init that would make my computer wait to
>>boot until my slow (CMS 20 meg) hard drive was up to speed. 
>
>I'm really not trying to flame the originator, but...  Can someone explain
>to me just how a piece of code residing on the boot disk can be
>executed before the boot disk is mounted? I suspect that this wierd
>rumor started as part of an April fools joke.

I think the delay is stored in the PRAM (default is 15 sec) and the original
user was a bit confused, thinking it was a init instead of a utility that
would change the delay.  Somebody posted to one of the Mac groups a few weeks
back about this.  I wish I could remember which group it was or what utility
to use :-(.  One solution that I do remember was to add more memory.  Not as
cheap as changing the PRAM delay, but it is a solution.

         ---------   Doc


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jackb@MDI.COM (Jack Brindle) (06/22/91)

In article <4181@ux.acs.umn.edu> oleary@ux.acs.umn.edu (Doc O'Leary) writes:
>In article <1991Jun21.163417.24604@MDI.COM> jackb@MDI.COM (Jack Brindle) writes, among other things:
>
>>In article <12145@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) writes:
>>>i remember hearing about an init that would make my computer wait to
>>>boot until my slow (CMS 20 meg) hard drive was up to speed. 
>>
>>I'm really not trying to flame the originator, but...  Can someone explain
>>to me just how a piece of code residing on the boot disk can be
>>executed before the boot disk is mounted? I suspect that this wierd
>>rumor started as part of an April fools joke.
>
>I think the delay is stored in the PRAM (default is 15 sec) and the original
>user was a bit confused, thinking it was a init instead of a utility that
>would change the delay.  Somebody posted to one of the Mac groups a few weeks
>back about this.  I wish I could remember which group it was or what utility
>to use :-(.  One solution that I do remember was to add more memory.  Not as
>cheap as changing the PRAM delay, but it is a solution.

Actually, what Darryl wants is a utility that will automatically mount
his external hard disk as soon as it is available. He doesn't want to
boot off it at all. The PRAM time won't help here since the Mac was able
to find a bootable drive to boot from, and is far along in the boot
process (no longer scanning the SCSI bus) when the 20 meg drive becomes
available. I solved the problem for myself by using the SCSImount cdev
(I think it's called) that allows you to mount and view drives. In my
case I don't mind manually mounting the drive. Darryl wants it to be
automatic. That's not too much to ask...

JackB.
ham radio: wa4fib/7

6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) (06/22/91)

well, i figured out a round-about solution to my problem:

per someone's suggestion, i downloaded SCSIProbe 3.0.1, which provides
a user-configurable hot-key to mount all volumes at any time. This
does the same thing at the old MountEm FKey, but MountEm was crashing
on my computer.

anyways, i "wired" the hot-key to a QuickKey (v. 1.2.1), and then
created a sequence named "Startup" that "hit" the hot-key.

using the QuickTimer cdev, i set it up so that the sequence
named "Startup" would run every time my computer (gee, have you
guessed it by now) started up.

so what happens now is that my power key turns on the computer, the
monitor, and my external hd.  my internal hd kicks in immediately,
starting my long parade of inits and cdevs. meanwhile my external hd
is still warming up. by the time my extensions are loaded, my external
is fully up to speed (well, as up to speed as an old 20 meg CMS--
Seagate mechanism--can go).

this is where QuickTimer and QuickKeys does their thing. the startup
sequence is run (the SCSIProbe hot-key is "hit"), and my external hd
mounts.  whoopee!

many thanx to the many people who responded to this one :}

				--Darryl
				  6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu

picard@sbanet.UUCP (Donald Burr) (06/23/91)

In article <12145@hub.ucsb.edu> 6600dayl@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Darryl "NOT Ug" Lee) writes:
> [ paraphrase: I remember hearing of an INIT that tells your computer to wait ]
> [ until all SCSI devices spin up before it boots, but I can't find it. ]

APS makes a small program called "Wait Time" that will change the amount of
time the computer waits when you turn it on, to startup.  I believe it's freely
distributable; itr comes with the APS hard drives you can buy thru them.
 
Let me check...

Yep, it is distributable.  If anyone wants a copy (it's only about 3K), I will
be glad to mail to you. 

-- 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
! Donald Burr, AKA Captain_Picard   picard@sbanet.uucp, !...!sbanet!picard !
! OTHER EMAIL ADDRESSES: dburr@ocf.berkeley.edu, 72540.3071@compuserve.com !
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tappek@infonode.ingr.com (J. Kurt Tappe) (06/28/91)

>(about making the Mac wait for hard drives and booting from
  the wrong ones because some are faster...)

First of all, let's get our terminology correct.  You are
not waiting for the hard drive to "boot."  You are waiting
for it to SPIN UP.  Every hard drive has two motors in it;
one is the main motor that keeps it spinning all day.  The
other is the motor that, when you first power up, gets the
hard drive from rest to normal spinning speed so the other
motor can take over.  Most hard drives don't take long to
spin up.  The Quantums that Apple uses are very good in
this regard; they all spin up very fast and long before
the Mac is ready to go look at them.  However, some drives
(especially SeaGates) are notorious for taking a long time
to spin up.  Some take as long as 15 seconds, and you get
a problem when the Mac goes out looking for a drive that
is not ready.  The amount of time the Mac waits for a
hard drive to get ready is the "time out" and it is a
variable that you can set if you have the proper utility.
I have a utility called "Set Timeout" that sets this
variable (though luckliy I have never had to use it). I
believe it (or a similar utility) can be found at one of
the normal Mac FTP sites (be it 36.44.0.6, 128.174.20.50,
or 141.211.165.34.)
Good luck!

Kurt

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