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My "New" Mac IIfx Sees My Seagate ST-225N as a "Large Volume That Cannot Be Used"

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
Installed Silverlining 5.7 on the 80MB Quantum drive. I can now control and set the SCSI ID through software - no need to worry about the ID selector on the back of the 20SC.

This HD shuts down and restarts the IIfx when prompted - not when it feels like it. Clearly something was goofed up with the logic circuitry on the ST-225N. Oh well.

I don’t think you can control the SCSI ID insofar as if there are two devices with the same hardware ID they will still conflict.
 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
I have the internal Quantum drive set to ID 0 and the 80MB Quantum set to ID 2 by Silverlining. There’s no conflict on the SCSI bus and everything is working fine.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
I have the internal Quantum drive set to ID 0 and the 80MB Quantum set to ID 2 by Silverlining. There’s no conflict on the SCSI bus and everything is working fine.
I've not heard of this before. Can you show me a screenshot of the options? I'm down right confused because I swear ID was managed on a hardware level. Is there a manual to share?

What IDs are shown in Drive Setup?
 
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Concorde1993

Well-known member
What IDs are shown in Drive Setup?
Here's a pic of Drive Setup in OS 8.1:
#6.jpg
I've not heard of this before.
The program is called Silverlining (Version 5.7). It was bundled with the final external Apple SCSI drives that were produced by LaCie for Apple around 1997. I do have a manual but its a TeachText doc so I'll need to find a way to convert it to a PDF. I'm surprised there's not more information about LaCie's Silverlining software as its a great piece of kit and far superior to anything Apple produced for reformatting SCSI drives. I've been using it for over a year and absolutely love it.

I've taken some chronological snapshots of the Silverlining software in action. Should be pretty self-explanatory as to how to change the SCSI ID through software:
#1.jpg
#2.jpg
#3.jpg
#4.jpg
#5.jpg
 

Phipli

Well-known member
I know of Silverlining, I just don't tend to use third party disk drivers.

How were you able to boot it the first time with both set to zero before you changed it? It should cause a conflict?
 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
How were you able to boot it the first time with both set to zero before you changed it?
I plugged in my external 1.2GB drive and changed the main SCSI ID of the internal Quantum 1.2GB drive from 0 to 1. From there I used by Silverlining 5.7 disk and reprogrammed the SCSI setting on the 80MB Quantum drive from 0 to 2. Lastly, I reset the internal Quantum 1.2GB's ID back to 0.
 

mg.man

Well-known member
How were you able to boot it the first time with both set to zero before you changed it? It should cause a conflict?
I've seen cases where this sort of conflict will result in one drive being recognised and the other not. So... it's possible that the boot was from the recognised one and the other drive was simply a no-show. I'm also pretty sure that all you're doing with that "Set SCSI ID" SilverLining panel is telling SilverLining to load *its* driver for that ID whether or not any drive is set to that ID. That last SL panel with the green boxes is merely telling you that SL is controlling those two IDs. On those drives, the SCSI ID is not soft-configurable.
 

joshc

Well-known member
On those drives, the SCSI ID is not soft-configurable.
That was my thought too - there's no way the SCSI ID could be software controlled, by the time the bus has seen it, it's too late to change that. That's my understanding of it anyway? I am no SCSI expert and I bow to the SCSI gods...
 

Phipli

Well-known member
It would be interesting to see the jumper end of the Apple 80 MB disk, where the config jumpers are.
 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
Running into a strange issue with 24-bit mode in 7.5.1 - details below:
(1) When wanting to boot into 6.0.8 on the 20SC, the IIfx prompts me to restart in 24-bit mode (no problems here - everything is fine). When I want to go back to 7.5.1, the IIfx remains in 24-bit mode and boots normally with the 20SC still running. However, when I switch off the 20SC and if the IIfx is still in 24-bit mode in 7.5.1, I am greeted with a bomb that tells me "System" illegal instruction (I would get an error 97 if I disabled extensions). The only way to get around this bomb is to either switch on my 20SC or run my Norton Utilities 3.5 CD with the "C" key pressed down

(2) When running Disk First Aid, I'm told that MountCheck found serious errors and that the problem is Overlapped Extent Allocation (with two numbers beside it). Disk First Aid can't repair this so I run Norton Disk Doctor and I find out that some of my fonts have been corrupted (thus far, I have had to delete and reinstall Times, TTY, Oxford & Palatino). Not sure why my fonts are being affected in 24-bit mode, but at least its nothing serious. The internal 1.2GB Quantum drive is quite healthy and the System Folder is in good shape for both partitions

(3) To avoid getting the system bomb and corrupted fonts after finishing in 6.0.8, I enter the Memory control panel in 7.5.1 and manually set it back to 32-bit mode. Afterwards, I restart the IIfx in 32-bit mode with the 20SC still running. Once I've reached the desktop, I then shut down the IIfx, switch off the 20SC, and can boot into 7.5.1 normally without any bomb or font corruption. It's a ridiculous procedure but I can't understand why 7.5.1 is freaking out in 24-bit mode (I thought all of the System 7 releases until 7.6.1 could address 24-bit mode. Thoughts?)

Oh and on an unrelated note the crappy A$$TEC PS this IIfx came with is starting to fail (IIfx chimes then quickly shuts off if the computer was recently powered down - I had the same problem with the other ASTEC unit in my OrangePC IIfx before it made some horrible clicking noises and died for good). Does anyone have a spare working SONY PS they'd like to donate/sell on the cheap?
 

joshc

Well-known member
Does anyone have a spare working SONY PS they'd like to donate/sell on the cheap?
Thought about doing an ATX conversion? The power supply case for a IIfx is quite large so there are ATX PSUs that will fit in the original enclosure, then it's just a case of wiring up the corresponding pins to the original wiring harness for a seamless conversion.
 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
First thing to do is update to 7.5.3 or 7.5.5. There isn't much difference, but they include bug fixes.
I have a 7.5.3 restore disc for the Performa 5200 series. The IIfx won’t boot from it (says I need to run the disc from the Installer). The Installer says the opposite and alerts that I need to restart the computer and boot from the disc. 🤪

The only “official” install discs I have are 7.5.0 and the upgrade disc to 7.5.1 (I could always download a copy online, but I’m weary of their quality, especially when it involves system software). Did Apple ever release a 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 upgrade/install disc? I don’t mind hunting for one.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
I have a 7.5.3 restore disc for the Performa 5200 series. The IIfx won’t boot from it (says I need to run the disc from the Installer). The Installer says the opposite and alerts that I need to restart the computer and boot from the disc. 🤪

The only “official” install discs I have are 7.5.0 and the upgrade disc to 7.5.1 (I could always download a copy online, but I’m weary of their quality, especially when it involves system software). Did Apple ever release a 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 upgrade/install disc? I don’t mind hunting for one.
Apple released 7.5.3 and possibly the 7.5.5 update for actual free on their site for years. Floppy images sadly if I remember, but more generally there were generic, non-machine specific install CDs made for almost every version of the OS from 7.5.
 

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
I have a 7.5.3 restore disc for the Performa 5200 series. The IIfx won’t boot from it (says I need to run the disc from the Installer). The Installer says the opposite and alerts that I need to restart the computer and boot from the disc. 🤪

The only “official” install discs I have are 7.5.0 and the upgrade disc to 7.5.1 (I could always download a copy online, but I’m weary of their quality, especially when it involves system software). Did Apple ever release a 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 upgrade/install disc? I don’t mind hunting for one.

I wouldn’t be concerned with what someone could do nefariously to a Mac operating system install disk. A hacker is not going to turn your old Mac into a malware invested PC with root kits to mine Bitcoin for them, or use it to steal your data. Not happening.

There is nothing wrong with the downloads you can find on Macintosh Garden.

More specifically, this ISO image is a very useful toolkit when trying to install or recover a Mac OS version on a vintage machine:

 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
I wouldn’t be concerned with what someone could do nefariously to a Mac operating system install disk. A hacker is not going to turn your old Mac into a malware invested PC with root kits to mine Bitcoin for them, or use it to steal your data.
I was thinking more along the lines of my partition becoming corrupt by an inferior download (i.e., System Bomb), but interesting thought nevertheless.

Besides it's always nice to have the original physical Apple copy for software releases. Just my preference. Small stuff like TattleTech, etc. is not as important.
 

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
I was thinking more along the lines of my partition becoming corrupt by an inferior download (i.e., System Bomb), but interesting thought nevertheless.

Besides it's always nice to have the original physical Apple copy for software releases. Just my preference. Small stuff like TattleTech, etc. is not as important.

I can appreciate that. From my recollection, the retail boxed Mac System 7.5 kits all contained the 7.5.0 CD which was not bootable. It required a boot floppy to work.

However I do know there exists some System 7.5.3 CDs which have the retail CD silkscreen. I’m unsure if they are bootable or not.

There are also “machine specific” bootable CDs of every version from 7.1 through 9.x. I thought most of these were universal (meaning they can boot any Mac that supports that version).

If you’re looking for a retail CD / boxed copy of 7.5.5, I think you’re out of luck. Everything I’ve ever seen for 7.5.5 was a machine-specific CD. Otherwise it was a downloadable update from Apple.

With time you might find a 7.5.3 retail copy but I think it’s quite rare.
 

Concorde1993

Well-known member
More oddities for your reading pleasure:
(1) So I booted into 6.0.8 from my 7.5.1 partition (everything is fine at this point). When booting back to 7.5.1 with the 20SC still on, I'm greeted by a System Bomb halfway through the boot process - this time it's complaining about the "Global Village Toolbox" and gives an illegal instruction (disabling extensions did nothing but cause the System Bomb dialog box to flicker). Norton Utilities noted that just a couple of fonts had become corrupted and needed replacing, yet again

(2) Since there seems to be an issue switching back from 24-bit to 32-bit mode in 7.5.1, I figured I would boot from the OS 8.1 partition and enter 6.0.8 from there. Here's the oddity - for some reason 8.1 would not allow the IIfx to boot into 6.0.8 even though the 20SC was mounted in the desktop, the 6.0.8 icon was activated in the Startup Disk utility, and there are no system errors with the drive (everything checks out in Norton and Disk First Aid). It reverted back to 7.5.1 which is not what I wanted. I then tried to run 6.0.8 in the 7.5.1 partition, and it too would not boot the IIfx into 6.0.8 even though the drive was mounted and recognized by the system. Not sure what's going on here. I can access all of my data in the 20SC drive and open it both in 7.5.1 and 8.1 - what did I piss off here? Both partitions and the 20SC drive are set to mount in the Silverlining 5.7 software at startup
 
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