¥ APS PowerToolsª 4.0.7 Read Me ¥

© 1995 - 1996 APS Technologies & Charismac Engineering

The following document contains additional notes / features that may help you in your installation and use of the APS PowerTools (APT) Formatting Utility.  Please review this document completely.

Older versions of the APS PowerTools User's Manual state that the APT Extension is automatically installed in the Extensions folder of your System Folder.  This has been changed.  The APT Extension is now placed in a folder labelled "APS PowerToolsª Folder", along with other PowerTools files (described later in this document).   The APT Extension is used to support removable media drives.  If you have a removable media drive and want to support it with the APT Extension, drag it to the Extensions folder (or System Folder for System 6 users) of your startup drive.  The APT Extension and its use is described later in this document and in the APS PowerTools User's Manual.

The "Bootman" utility previously included on the APS PowerToolsª distribution diskette has been removed in order to save space.  System 6 users who require this heap-management utility can obtain Bootman" from the APS Support Center (800-334-7550), or download it from the APS BBS System.

For an overview and example of auto-initializing a removable or fixed disk drive for the Macintosh, please refer to page 15 of the APS PowerTools User's Manual.


¥¥¥¥ WARNING ¥¥¥¥
PROTECT YOUR PRECIOUS DATA!  	Your data is extremely important.  You must protect your data with frequent and regular backups.  You are entirely responsible for your data and for backing it up.  Before using APS PowerTools on your existing drives, make a complete backup of your data.  APS Technologies assumes no responsibility for your data.  Should you lose data, APS will not attempt to recover it for you or accept any responsibility for its recovery.  If you need information about data backup systems, contact the APS sales department.

Users should NOT attempt to perform a "friendly takeover" of any drive formatted previously by a different formatting utility (or by any version of PowerTools earlier than 4.0) without first making a complete backup of all data on the drive.  A "friendly takeover" refers to the process of installing the PowerTools 4 driver over the existing one already on your drive, allowing the PowerTools 4 driver to "take over" the formatted drive.  Because of variables and conditions beyond the control of the PowerTools formatting utility, low-level operations such as these have associated risks, and may result in the loss of data.  APS cannot guarantee that a "friendly takeover" will proceed without incident.  This is not unique to APS PowerTools, and can occur whenever a drive formatted by one utility is "taken over" by another vendor's driver.

If you intend to use the PowerTools 4 driver on an existing drive, the safest procedure is to backup the data and then initialize the drive using the PowerTools 4 utility.


System Requirements
The APS PowerTools Formatting Utility is compatible with any Macintosh Plus model or higher running system 6.0 or higher, with at least 2 MB of free RAM.  System 7 is preferred with at least 4MB of RAM.  The APS PowerTools Formatting Utility fully supports the Power Macintosh line of computers including the new PCI-based Power Macintosh.


Installation
Your floppy diskette should contain 7 items: the APS PowerToolsª 4 installer, and six Read-Me documents titled "PowerTools 4 Revision History", "Attention PD4 Users", "ATTN-Quantum Fireball Drives", "ATTN-PowerPlugª Users", "ATTN-PowerBook & Duo Users", and "APS PowerToolsª Read Me!" (this document).

The installer will place copies of the APS PowerTools formatting utility, the APS Mounter, and the APT Extension (as well as copies of the six Read-Me documents) in a folder named "APS PowerToolsª Folder" on the drive you select.

If you have a removable media drive (such as a magneto-optical drive, SyQuest drive, or PD drive), move the APT Extension from the "APS PowerToolsª Folder" to the Extensions folder of your System Folder (or just to the System Folder for System 6 users).  The APT Extension can pre-load drivers for your removable media drives during startup, so that formatted media will mount automatically when it is inserted in the drive.


PowerTools Software Components

APS PowerTools Formatting Utility
APS PowerTools is the main utility application.  It is used to prepare your hard disk or removable media for use with the Apple Macintosh and PowerMacintosh computer.  It provides for the formatting, initialization, partitioning, and configuration of all hard disk and removable media drive products, and includes built-in APS TurboMO.  APS TurboMO uses a special preparation process that greatly increases write-to-disk speed on magneto-optical media.  If you wish to override TurboMO, you may do so, overall performance of the MO media will be decreased.  Please see chapter 10, "APS TurboMO" in the APS PowerTools User's Manual for more information.

APS PowerTools offers full, comprehensive support for LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers) for control of over 100 devices on one SCSI bus.


APS Mounterª
The APS Mounter recognizes and supports all removable and fixed media drives.  It provides for an easy and efficient way to manage all of your drives' volumes and removable media devices. 

APS Mounter has three functions: 1) it can be used to set volume options, (i.e., password-protection, automatic mounting, write-protect, and more); 2) it can access unmounted volumes and mount them; and 3) it can be used to control whether the APT Extension should load a driver for selected removable media devices during startup so that cartridges will mount automatically when inserted. 


APT Extension
The APS PowerTools Extension (APT Extension) is designed to pre-load drivers for removable media drives during startup, so that properly-prepared media cartridges automatically mount on the Macintosh Desktop when inserted.  If you have a removable media drive, or want to support it using the APT Extension, it should be dragged from the "APS PowerToolsª Folder" and placed in the "Extensions" folder (or "System Folder" for System 6 users) of your startup drive.

By default, the APT Extension will scan all busses, SCSI IDs, and all LUNs during startup.  Use the APS Mounter to turn off scanning for selected busses or devices.  Only removable media devices need to be scanned.  [NOTE: the APT Extension does not support CD-ROM drives; users who wish to support their CD-ROM drives should use APS CD-AutoCache, available separately.]


APS Power Control (optional)
APS Power Control is a performance enhancing utility included only with the APS PowerTools Professional Package, which allows experienced users to view, change and optimize SCSI mode page parameter settings. These settings determine the way in which a drive transfers data across the SCSI bus. Detailed information / instructions about APS Power Control may be found in the APS PowerTools Utility User's Manual, or through the user friendly on-line help system found within APS Power Control.


General Information
APS PowerTools is the fastest, most reliable SCSI utility software available for the Macintosh.  APS PowerTools anticipates possible problems and corrects them on the fly, protecting you from disastrous disk crashes and other unanticipated errors that could bring your work to a screeching halt. APS PowerTools gives you total control over all of your SCSI storage devices.


Compatibility
APS PowerTools is compatible with virtually all SCSI and IDE disk mechanisms for Macintosh, including fixed disks, SyQuests, Opticals (3.5" and 5.25") Flopticals and the new Iomegaª Zipª and Jaxª drives.


Features added since the printing of the manual

APS PowerTools and Mounter now incorporates direct support for the SCSI PowerPlug.  Please see the Read-Me document "ATTN-PowerPlugª Users" on the distribution diskette.


3rd Party SCSI Accelerator Cards
APS PowerTools includes support for virtually all third-party SCSI, NuBus and PCI Accelerator cards.


SCSI Manager 4.3 / Power Macintosh Compatibility
The APS PowerTools Formatting Utility is fully compatible with Apple's SCSI Manager 4.3. SCSI Manager 4.3 is found in the ROMs of the new Power Macintosh line of computers, as well as in the Quadra 840 AV and 660 AV. The benefits of the new SCSI Manager 4.3 running with the APS PowerTools Formatting software include:

¥ asynchronous SCSI I/0
¥ reduced SCSI I/0 processing overhead
¥ maximized SCSI bus utilization resulting in higher data transfer rates.


Incompatibilities

PowerTools Formatting Utility
Files that have been compressed using Symantec's DiskDoubler or AutoDoubler products, and then copied to TurboMO-prepared media using CopyDoubler, may become corrupted during the transfer process.  The cause of the problem has not been clearly identified, and both Symantec and Charismac Engineering are working to solve the behavior.  Until this is resolved, compressed files should not be copied to TurboMO-prepared media using CopyDoubler, *or*, TurboMO must not be used to prepare the destination MO media.

PowerTools 4.0.4 and earlier versions should not be used to prepare Micropolis 2112 drives.  Doing so will render these model drives unusable.  PowerTools 4 changes the number of cache segments from 1 to 2 on these drives.  Using a SCSI mode page editor, changing the number of cache segments back to 1 returns the drive to good operation.  This will be addressed in an upcoming release.

PowerBooks that are equipped with IDE internal drives (i.e., PowerBooks 190, 5300, and Duo 2300) cannot be operated in disk mode emulation, and therefore cannot be docked to a conventional desktop Macintosh.  Apple Computer has not yet disclosed the technical information necessary to enable the disk mode emulation on IDE drives that have been formatted with third-party utilities.  If you must use your IDE drive in disk mode emulation, you may format it using Apple's Drive Setup 1.0.4 or later.  Please note, however, that IDE drives formatted with Drive Setup cannot be partitioned.  As soon as Apple makes available this technical information, it will be incorporated into PowerTools.

Because of recent changes in the Macintosh System Software, manual-mount and/or password-protected partitions on IDE drives may mount automatically, or mount without being prompted for a password,  after booting from a SCSI drive.  If you boot from the IDE drive instead, all partitions behave as expected.  [Example: PowerBook Duo 2300 with two partitions on the IDE drive (one set to mount automatically at startup, the other password-protected & manual mount) in a DuoDock with a SCSI drive.   If you boot from the PowerBook Duo 2300's internal IDE drive, all partitions behave correctly.  If you boot from the DuoDock's SCSI drive, all partitions mount, even the password- protected volumes.  If you boot with Extensions disabled by holding down the SHIFT key during startup, this does not occur.  Extensive testing indicates that the problem is not being caused by an Extension or Control Panel, but by the System File itself.]  APS is working closely with Apple and Charismac to work around this issue.

Fujitsu MO 230 PisMO drives installed in the media bay of PowerBooks 190 and 5300's will not recognize the insertion of blank, non-formatted media.  If you have a PisMO drive, it may be necessary for you to format the MO media in a standard SCSI MO drive before it can be used in the PisMO.  NOTE: This is not a bug in PowerTools; it appears to be a communication  problem between the Apple's ATA manager and the PisMO drive. 

Power Control
Power Control v1.05d1 will not operate correctly with RAM Doubler loaded in memory.  Before using Power Control, restart your Macintosh with Extensions off, or disable RAM Doubler.  Power Control will perform correctly.  This is corrected in Power Control 1.05e and later.

Please contact the APS Technologies Support Center regarding any suspected conflicts or incompatibilities.


Troubleshooting
For a list of common SCSI problems / solutions, please refer to Troubleshooting section in the APS PowerTools User's Manual.


PowerTools Upgrades
As newer versions of PowerTools 4.X are released, APS places version updaters on its BBS and FTP site, on Info-Mac's FTP servers, and on the commercial online services America Onlineª and CompuServeª.  By downloading and applying these updaters to your copy of PowerTools 4.X, it will be updated to the current released version.  

These updaters are free, and can be obtained from our FTP site <ftp.apstech.com> or our BBS system (816-483-4541, user = guest, password = guest).  The will work on any previously released version of PowerTools 4.X.


Technical Support
Please have a copy of your invoice, and the software version number handy prior to calling APS Technologies. The version number may be found by selecting the APS PowerTools utility icon on your desktop and selecting 'Get Info' from the Apple Menu.

APS Technologies
6131 Deramus
Kansas City, MO 64120
Phone: (816) 483-6200, (800) 334-7550
Fax: (816) 483-4360
Internet Address:  support@apstech.com
Web Site Address:  http://www.apstech.com

Thank you for your purchase!


Reviewed 9/6/96