MASS STORAGE DEVICES
By Darrall Cutting
Copyright (c) 1991 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
NOW I KNOW WHY IT'S CALLED A HARD disk!
There is no doubt in my mind what is the most important link in the chain of devices which make up a computing system- the storage device. Without some effective means of storing and accessing software, the most sophisticated computer is just so much junk. My recent experiences in acquiring a hard disk led me to muse on the great advances that have been made in storage over the last decade for home computers. But rather than simplifying the task, the technology has created its own evermore complex problems. Perhaps we are in a transition phase; future software will be so intelligent that all operating and compatibility issues will be resolved automatically. I have my doubts!
I remember the time not so long ago, when I agonised for weeks about whether I should buy one of those wonderfully hi-tech gadgets called a ZX-81 home computer. It had a whole 1k of memory, connected to the TV and would even record one's BASIC program using a cassette recorder. I finally convinced myself it was worth the $100+, took it home with some trepidation, and plugged it into the TV. Wonder of wonders, up on the screen came the BASIC prompt and I was to be forever snared by the computing bug.
Of course, I soon became dissatisfied with my little 1k programs, and I bought the 16k RAM pack and was soon producing awesome programs, the like of which the world had never seen. The only trouble was, it took about ten minutes to load a single program from the cassette recorder, and there was a better than even chance that it wouldn't load the first time (or the second time). What's more, you never knew whether your masterpiece had saved correctly, and so you had to save three copies just to be sure, each taking 10 minutes. If patience is a virtue, then I was a saint.
So I bought a state-of-the-art cassette interface and some software which increased the data transfer rate by ten times with almost 100% reliability. That is, after its machine code driver had been loaded the slow way, taking up a precious kilobyte of RAM. I also found that after a year or so, the stored programs would not load reliably. Still, that's progress.
Three years and two nervous breakdowns later, I entered the wonderful world of Apple, and bought a 128k IIc with an inbuilt 5.25" disk drive. This storage device was a revelation to me, quite apart from the marvels of the IIc and its sophisticated software. Up to 140k could be stored on those floppies ON EACH SIDE! I studied the mysteries of DOS 3.3, then ProDos, and even wrote some pretty neat software in AppleSoft. The trouble was, disk swapping was getting to be a bit of a chore, and the newest programs on the market demanded two drives. With a sigh, I forked out a few hundred bucks and bought a 5.25" external drive. Now I
had the ideal system, capable of almost any home computing task!
That is, until the kids got old enough to start learning keyboard skills on space invaders. It wasn't long before: - "Dad, how come all my friends have got much better games on their computers IN COLOUR, and ours have only that yucky green?" I mean, how long can a guy hang on under that kind of pressure? Besides, I had seen what the IIGS could do at an AUG meeting, where it played amazingly cool jazz and displayed stunning graphics IN FULL COLOUR. And it was only a few thousand dollars.
I was soon the proud owner of a IIGS with 1.25Mb RAM, 3.5" drive, ImageWriter II and my old 5.25" drive. Anything was now possible with SYSTEM v4.0. 800k floppies were indeed a far cry from the humble cassette recorder.
You can probably guess what's coming. After a couple of years, I found I had 200+ Apple II DOS games on 5.25" floppies, and over a hundred 3.5" disks, most of which were backed up on other floppies stored in the cupboard. After a typical session, the study looked like Cyclone Tracy had passed, with paper everywhere and piles of floppies covering every available horizontal surface.
This was not perhaps, the ultimate system after all.
Now I have finally come to the point of this sordid tale. I had to have a hard disk! What type? Which brand? How big? Price? I read all I could find on the subject and became an instant expert on hard drives. Finally I decided on the biggest I could afford, 100 Mb, since software seemed to be increasingly large. I also wanted high reliability, which seemed to rule out removable cartridge types, at least in my price bracket of about $1500. Speed was also important; 10ms access time was about the best available. Finally, and I am ashamed to admit it, I wanted compatibility with the Macintosh, just in case I succumbed to senile dementia and was seduced by Apple's marketing ploys.
All of these criteria were satisfied by the UniMac 105Mb External Drive, which uses a Quantum mechanism. I also purchased Apple's High Speed SCSI card.
Eagerly, I carried my purchases home and opened the boxes. Here I came across my first problem. Since the UniMac was of course designed for the Macintosh, the installation utilities disk could not run on the IIGS. Fortunately, Apple's SCSI card came with its own ProDos 8 utility disk. I did the right thing and first read the instructions fully. None the wiser, I then gingerly opened the IIGS and installed the SCSI card in slot 6, next to my 2 Mb On-Board memory expansion card in slot 7.
The next step was to plug one end of the hard disk cable into the new socket on the IIGS and the other into...there were two sockets on the back of the drive; which was the right one? The SCSI card manual showed the bottom one, so who could argue. And yes, the SCSI device number on the hard drive was set to 6, which was OK since the drive would be used on start up.
Even though the SCSI manual says to set slot 6 to "Your Card" via the Control Panel, do NOT do this if you have a 5.25" drive since it will be disabled. Leave slot 6 set to "Disk Port."
Now, following the instructions in the Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card manual:
* Boot up from the 3.5" System disk
* Run the Installer program on the SCSI Utilities disk
* Install the SCSI drivers onto your 3.5" System disk
* Reboot.
* Run the HD SC Partition program on the SCSI Utilities disk
Here was an interesting dilemma. How many partitions and how big? I eventually decided on the maximum 32Mb for three partitions and the remaining 9Mb for the fourth.
* Hard format the Hard Drive. Get a cup of coffee because it takes some time.
*Go back to the Finder and run your System 5.0.4 Install program to put the System files and the SCSI drivers into the FIRST partition.
*Go to the Control Panel and change the startup slot to 7
*Finally, cold boot your IIGS, and hey presto, you should see the Finder appear in less than 30 seconds.
Not an easy job for the uninitiated, is it? And for me, it got harder! Half way through the boot, it crashed. No matter what I did, I got nothing. Booting from my 3.5" System disk, the four partitions showed up fine in the Finder. The System files also looked OK until I happened to notice that one of the folders was spelt incorrectly. I tried to correct it, but it obstinately changed back again when I wasn't looking. Was this a particularly sneaky virus?
I loaded Appleworks and some files onto the first partition, and it seemed to run well. I created a word processing file and saved it OK. Then I reloaded it. Masses of spelling mistakes! Then I knew what was happening. I had purchased an illiterate Mac drive!
I pondered whether I could afford to send it to a computerised language laboratory training class. I rang a couple of AUG experts who scratched their heads doubtfully and suggested a few things to try, like switching off the DMA (Direct Memory Access) on the SCSI card, or taking out my memory card. Nothing worked.
In a panic, I contacted the supplier who assured me his drives could spell perfectly, at least when connected to a Mac. However, he had never tried it on a IIGS. Maybe my IIGS was illiterate. Ignoring that cheap shot, I asked him to check with the manufacturers.
Next day he came back with the news that my problem was easily remedied. The hard drive had to be terminated when connected to a IIGS. Thinking of a cat I once had, which had to be put down when it caught cat flu, I asked if my IIGS had a virus infection.
Not so, he said. The terminating resistors which must be connected to the input socket on the drive for the IIGS, are
not needed for the Mac and so are removed and taped onto the inside of the case. All I had to do was open the drive casing, unscrew the unit and insert the resistors into the tiny sockets provided for the top input connector. Ten minutes work, and I gingerly plugged in the drive, using the top socket this time, and booted.
It must be obvious to you now that it worked perfectly, or I wouldn't be able to tell you this tale; I would have been convicted of first degree homicide on an illiterate, defenseless UniMac. Still, my experience may benefit someone out there with a IIGS who is contemplating a similar hard decision.
Now that I've lived with this great device for a few months now, I wonder how I ever got on without it. Programs load in a few seconds, Files are saved literally in the blink of a eye. My desktop is now covered with paper rather than floppy disks. That incredible program, HyperCard GS, wouldn't work without it.
Mind you, there are still a few problems. None of my 300 DOS programs can be loaded. Many of the earlier IIGS games and utilities either can't be loaded due to copy protection, or they need System 4. Only the first two partitions can be recognised by ProDos 8 programs. You MUST backup the files you create, like Appleworks or HyperCard files, and this takes literally stacks of disks. I find it much easier to put all such files on the second partition, called DATA; they are then accessible to ProDos 8 programs and easier to locate during backup. Backing up my 32Mb DATA partition could take over forty 3.5" disks, not counting the two disks for each incremental backup. Annoyingly, the excellent compression algorithms used in ShrinkIt are not to be found in any backup utility.
Believe it or not, my 105Mb hard disk is already three quarters full. And I'm sure that as I write and buy more Hypercard stacks, which are very memory-hungry, I will start to run short of storage space again.
Now, I was reading recently that pretty soon, a 600 Mb CD-Drive will be available which can save as well as read files. I wonder how much it would cost...................

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