barry@wolman.prime.com (12/11/90)
Several weeks ago I posted a query asking for experiences with INITs
that allowed a Mac to mount a MSDOS floppy on the Desktop. This note
summarizes the responses I received.
[The delay in posting this summary is due to fact that Prime Computer
had Yet Another Reduction in Force in late November and finding
another job suddenly became my top priority. On a personal basis the
issue of how to mount MSDOS floppies has become moot, but I hope the
rest of you find this information useful.]
There are two commercial products that enable a Mac user to
manipulate MSDOS floppies directly from the Desktop: DOS Mounter
from Dayna Communications and Access/PC from Insignia. Access/PC is
available for $82 from MacConnection. Presumarly, DOS Mounter must
be obtained directly from Dayna.
The present version of Access/PC seems to have more features than the
_original_ version of DOS Mounter; however, there is a new version
of DOS Mounter described in a recent MacWeek that seems to offer
comparable features. According to MacWeek, DOS Mounter 2.0 ($89.95)
improvements include faster mounting of DOS volumes, formatting of
high/low density disks directly from the Finder, full support for
locked and write-protected disks, simplified procedure for mapping
DOS file name extensions onto Mac applications and support for
removable media types such as Syquest, Iomega, PLI, and Kennect.
Most of the replies cited positive experiences with the original DOS
mounter. No one reported significant problems, although one user
decided to switch from DOS Mounter to Access/PC.
There used to be a demo version of DOS Mounter available at the
SUMEX archives. The last time I checked it wasn't there.
I've placed a copy in directory pub/mac on tiger1.prime.com
(129.122.3.47) where it can be fetched by anonymous FTP.
Individual responses follow:
------------------------------
From: "David Baird" <xdab@midway.uchicago.edu>
Organization: University of Chicago
I use Dayna's DOS Mounter and have experienced no problems with it.
I have been using it on a IIfx and a IIci. Most of the files I
exchange are word processing documents where the Mac application will
translate the DOS file. So I don't have to wait for AFE to start, then
wait while it translates the file to my hard drive. Instead, I can
insert the disk where it appears on the desktop like a regular Mac
floppy, open it, copy the file(s) to the hard drive, and then switch
to the word processer under multi-finder, and open the DOS file. It is
converted and away I go.
------------------------------
From: consp22@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Darren Handler)
I have used DOS mounter from Dayna. On the SE's it is slow but very effective.
I have not gotten the chance to use it on the faster machines, but I bet it
would be much more desirable.
------------------------------
From: ames!coherent.com!dplatt (Dave Platt)
Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
I've played around with the Dayna DOS Mount INIT. It seems to work OK.
Both this INIT, and the PC Access INIT have a nice feature... they "fake
up" a type/creator-ID for many files based on the file's MS-DOS
extension. So, you can double-click on a file FOOBAR.WK1, and the
Finder will "think" that it's an Excel document and will launch Excel
and feed it the file... and Excel will import the data.
...
I understand that the new version of this INIT has some extra
features... including the ability to initialize DOS-format floppies from
the Finder.
------------------------------
From: William L Nussbaum <wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu>
Organization: Columbia University
From: Jeff Kain <jkain@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Here at IU University Computing Services, we started with DOS Mounter.
Nice program, does what it claims to do (mount DOS disks on the
desktop), and was much more convenient than the Apple File Exchange.
It wouldn't let you double-click the file to launch an application,
though, and for the people who would be using it this was very bad.
Then we got ahold of Access/PC. Very very nice. It is completely
configurable to support double-clicking of documents. It knows which
application to launch based on the file extension. For example, we
have all files ending in .WP to open WordPerfect/Mac, .DOC to open
Microsoft Word, .WK1 to open Excel, etc.. It's very stable and faster
than DOS Mounter as well. It also gives you the option of formatting
disks in DOS or Macintosh format.
Both packages are infinitely preferable to the Apple File Exchange.
I'd recommend Access/PC over DOS Mounter.
Hope this helps!
------------------------------
From: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.edu
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Sender: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.edu
DOSMounter is great! You just pop in the disk and copy the files over.
Apple File Exchange offers some nice file translation features, but on the
whole if all you want is to get the files over in one piece DOSMounter makes
it a piece of cake, so to speak.
I have had some trouble getting it to load with other INITs, though, but
renaming it to load first (last?) solved my problems.
-- Mark Wilkins
------------------------------
From: s902113@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (Luke Mewburn)
After using DOS Mounter on a friends SE/30, I think that this product is
great. It allows you to place MosSDOS discs straight into the SWIM FDHD (It
wouldn't work on an IWM FDDD drive, like on a Plus/SE), and you can read
the disks as though they are a normal mac disc. I think (I only used the
program for a short while) that there is another program called 'Foriegn
File Access' which makes the PC files appear with proper icons (ie,
Application icons for .exe, Documents for .txt) instead of everything
appearing as a generic document (as the DOS Mounter init does.)
Well, thats my little bit.
Luke.
------------------------------
End of responses
Barry
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry Wolman | barry@s66.prime.com
ex-Principal Technical Consultant | 500 Old Connecticut Path
Prime Computer | Framingham, MA 01701
| 508/620-2800, ext. 1100
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