Kathleen Hartz

My trusty 250 meg SCSI hasd drive just died and I can't find a drive that
small to replace it. Figured I would just use my backup of my startup
volume on the Zip Drive and run System 6 from there. But I can't boot
directly from the Zip drive......?
I think I read where one can create a simple floppy boot disk to then boot
GSOS on the Zip?
Here is what I tried: 1) copy Prodos and Basic system to a floppy drive.
2) create and save basic file named 'Startup' onto that same disk.
10 PRINT CHR$(4)"-/Iomega.A/Prodos"
20 END
save Startup

However , when I boot the thus created Startup disk I get a message
something like " Can not load Startup GSOS file " and the dreaded
swooping cursor.

Can someone help?
or shoud I go with a CF card instead of a used hard drive?
Or will the Zip drive suffice?

golfrock

I tried to use an old ZIP 100MB SCSI drive with my IIGS. It wouldn't
startup at all with the ZIP plugged in. That is, with other SCSI
drives installed and not. The drive works fine with my CC.

Robert

A2Pro

Hi!

On Jul 29, 6:36 pm, Kathleen wrote:
> My trusty 250 meg SCSI hasd drive just died and I can't find a drive that
> small to replace it. Figured I would just use my backup of my startup
> volume on the Zip Drive and run System 6 from there. But I can't boot
> directly from the Zip drive......?

System 6.0.1 can be booted from a Zip drive. Your not being able
to do so is probably due to the lack of boot logic in block zero of
the Zip cartridge.

Willi

Kathleen Hartz

How do I fix that??

"A2Pro" <a2@wilserv.com> wrote in message
news:1185739595.810158.209570@57g2000hsv.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi!
>
> On Jul 29, 6:36 pm, Kathleen wrote:
> > My trusty 250 meg SCSI hasd drive just died and I can't find a drive
that
> > small to replace it. Figured I would just use my backup of my startup
> > volume on the Zip Drive and run System 6 from there. But I can't boot
> > directly from the Zip drive......?
>
> System 6.0.1 can be booted from a Zip drive. Your not being able
> to do so is probably due to the lack of boot logic in block zero of
> the Zip cartridge.
>
> Willi
>

schmidtd

> "A2Pro" <a...@wilserv.com> wrote:
> > System 6.0.1 can be booted from a Zip drive. Your not being able
> > to do so is probably due to the lack of boot logic in block zero of
> > the Zip cartridge.
>
> > Willi

"Kathleen Hartz" <PHa...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> How do I fix that??

You format the Zip "volume" with a ProDOS utility, then install GSOS
6.0.1 on it. I'm not sure what drivers are required to run a Zip
drive under ProDOS... if you boot a ProDOS utility diskette (the one
with all the utilities on it) can it see/format your Zip drive?

Kathleen Hartz

My backup volumes on the Zip (32 meg partitions) ARE formatted in Prodos. I
could therefore do a volume to volume backup from my hard drive 32 meg
partitions. Saved a lot of time compared to file backups. My current
problem is, now that I don't have a SCSI hard drive, how do I boot from the
Zip partition (volume). I am running the lastest RamFast revision on a
Ramfast controller.
How do i use a 3.6 'boot disk' to boot into GSOS on the Zip volume
(partition)??

"schmidtd" <schmidtd@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:1185744934.949515.9280@r34g2000hsd.googlegrou ps.com...
> > "A2Pro" <a...@wilserv.com> wrote:
> > > System 6.0.1 can be booted from a Zip drive. Your not being able
> > > to do so is probably due to the lack of boot logic in block zero of
> > > the Zip cartridge.
> >
> > > Willi
>
> "Kathleen Hartz" <PHa...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> > How do I fix that??
>
> You format the Zip "volume" with a ProDOS utility, then install GSOS
> 6.0.1 on it. I'm not sure what drivers are required to run a Zip
> drive under ProDOS... if you boot a ProDOS utility diskette (the one
> with all the utilities on it) can it see/format your Zip drive?
>

A2Pro

Hi!

On Jul 29, 10:00 pm, Kathleen wrote:
> My backup volumes on the Zip (32 meg partitions) ARE formatted in Prodos. I
> could therefore do a volume to volume backup from my hard drive 32 meg
> partitions. Saved a lot of time compared to file backups. My current
> problem is, now that I don't have a SCSI hard drive, how do I boot from the
> Zip partition (volume). I am running the lastest RamFast revision on a
> Ramfast controller.
> How do i use a 3.6 'boot disk' to boot into GSOS on the Zip volume
> (partition)??

In an e-mail directly to you I offered to send you a program that
would change the boot block on a Zip cartridge so that it would be the
same as the boot block on the cart I use to boot my IIgs. I received
no response. Please advise.

Willi

Michael Kent

Kathleen Hartz <PHartz@columbus.rr.com> wrote:

> However , when I boot the thus created Startup disk I get a message
> something like " Can not load Startup GSOS file " and the dreaded
> swooping cursor.

I may be wrong, but this doesn't sound like a boot block problem. If
a ProDOS volume is missing a boot block, then the error on startup is
something like:

"Not a startup disk"

If the boot block is there but the ProDOS file is missing, the error is
something like:

"Unable to load ProDOS"

Once the ProDOS loader file is loaded and executed, it looks for the
Start.GS.OS file inside the System directory in the root directory. If
it can't find it, it gives an error message similar to:

"Unable to load Start.GS.OS file"

(This is from memory, so the exact text of the message may differ.) It
sounds from your message that the Start.GS.OS file is missing or corrupt.
It should be a GS/OS system file with an auxtype of $000D and be located
in the System directory. The System directory must be in the root
directory of the boot disk.

> Can someone help?
> or shoud I go with a CF card instead of a used hard drive?
> Or will the Zip drive suffice?

Zip drives are useful for backup, but I wouldn't keep one as my main
hard drive for very long. They pose two problems for GS/OS. 1) They're
removeable, and 2) They go to sleep. GS/OS doesn't handle either case
very well with the current drivers.

There is a driver out there called the Tulin floptical driver that solves
these problems. It was written by a guy called -- this is from memory --
Wing Cheung or something like that. He had a Compuserve address for the
longest time. If you have that driver Zip drives are much better behaved
on the Apple II. [Anyone know what happened to him? Or his driver? -ed]

If your hard drive is shot and you're willing to spend the money, I'd go
with a CFFA card or a CF-Focus as a hard drive replacement. That's my
preference, anyway.

Good luck,
Mike

grent@comcast.net

On Jul 29, 6:36 pm, "Kathleen Hartz" <PHa...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> My trusty 250 meg SCSI hasd drive just died and I can't find a drive that
> small to replace it. Figured I would just use my backup of my startup
> volume on the Zip Drive and run System 6 from there. But I can't boot
> directly from the Zip drive......?
> I think I read where one can create a simple floppy boot disk to then boot
> GSOS on the Zip?
> Here is what I tried: 1) copy Prodos and Basic system to a floppy drive.
> 2) create and save basic file named 'Startup' onto that same disk.
> 10 PRINT CHR$(4)"-/Iomega.A/Prodos"
> 20 END
> save Startup
>
> However , when I boot the thus created Startup disk I get a message
> something like " Can not load Startup GSOS file " and the dreaded
> swooping cursor.
>
> Can someone help?
> or shoud I go with a CF card instead of a used hard drive?
> Or will the Zip drive suffice?

Hi,
How do you know that the HD is bad? Smoke, grinding noise.? A lot of
times the controller card edge that goes in the slot needs to be
cleaned after a few years.
Sometimes you have reseat the chips on the card and mother board. I
was given a Ramfast the looked dead. Just pushing down on all the
chips, hearing that srunch sound, as I pushed on each chip. Then the
card worked fine.
Deliverence and Prosel work well fixing flies on the HD.

BTW sent you an Email also.

Take Care

golfrock

On Jul 30, 2:36 pm, gr...@comcast.net wrote:
> On Jul 29, 6:36 pm, "Kathleen Hartz" <PHa...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > My trusty 250 meg SCSI hasd drive just died and I can't find a drive that
> > small to replace it. Figured I would just use my backup of my startup
> > volume on the Zip Drive and run System 6 from there. But I can't boot
> > directly from the Zip drive......?
> > I think I read where one can create a simple floppy boot disk to then boot
> > GSOS on the Zip?
> > Here is what I tried: 1) copy Prodos and Basic system to a floppy drive.
> > 2) create and save basic file named 'Startup' onto that same disk.
> > 10 PRINT CHR$(4)"-/Iomega.A/Prodos"
> > 20 END
> > save Startup
>
> > However , when I boot the thus created Startup disk I get a message
> > something like " Can not load Startup GSOS file " and the dreaded
> > swooping cursor.
>
> > Can someone help?
> > or shoud I go with a CF card instead of a used hard drive?
> > Or will the Zip drive suffice?
>
> Hi,
> How do you know that the HD is bad? Smoke, grinding noise.? A lot of
> times the controller card edge that goes in the slot needs to be
> cleaned after a few years.
> Sometimes you have reseat the chips on the card and mother board. I
> was given a Ramfast the looked dead. Just pushing down on all the
> chips, hearing that srunch sound, as I pushed on each chip. Then the
> card worked fine.
> Deliverence and Prosel work well fixing flies on the HD.
>
> BTW sent you an Email also.
>
> Take Care

Pull them out and use a little WD40 to clean the contacts can also
work wonders.

Robert