LC III and ProDOS partitions

[rshenz]

I recently acquired both a Mac LC III and the Apple IIe card. I had a difficult time partitioning the hard drive to create a ProDOS partition but eventually managed it using Lido (after the patched HD SC Setup had scrambled the non-Apple SCSI drive).

Now both Lido and HD SC Setup report that there is a ProDOS partition on the drive (after the HFS one of course) but even with the ProDOS File System extension installed I never see the partition on the desktop. Which of course means I can't use it.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to progress?

BTW the ProDOS partition doesn't have a name, as Lido never gave me the option of giving it one.

Thanks

 

[Johnnya101]

Hmmm... I was having some trouble creating two partitions the other day, but with HD SC setup. It wouldn't give me the option to name the drive either, but I was using Mac OS volumes. I'm guessing your first drive is named Macintosh HD... try changing it to something else?

 

[rshenz]

I changed the name of the drive but that didn't help. Then I thought I would create a 3rd partition (since that would write to the partition table). I made an HFS partition after the ProDOS one, using the patched HD SC Setup. That partition showed up asking to be formatted, but still the invisible ProDOS partition.

 

[Johnnya101]

Hmmmm... 

Check out these discussions.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.apple2/VkV0kuAIHEc

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vintage-macs/M8tEeVHm9tY

Think you might need some more software and maybe even an apple drive?

 

[rshenz]

On a related topic when I use "HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (Patched)" and go to custom partition, there is no option in the list of partition types for ProDOS. The list includes "Additional Mac Volume", "Misc A/UX" etc but no ProDOS volume. In the version of HD SC Setup which scrambled my SCSI it was certainly on the list.

If someone could point me to a disk image with the Patched version including the option for ProDOS I would appreciate it.

 

[joethezombie]

hmmm, i'm using the SCSI2SD in a mystic, but I had no problems creating ProDOS partitions with Lido. What size did you make them? Did you install the complete //e software, or just the extension? what is your OS, and what version of the //e software are you using?

 

[rshenz]

Hi. I made the partitions 32768K, the maximum. I installed the full 2.2.1 Apple IIe card software (which runs fine) including the extension. I used the installer on the IIe card disk. The installed OS is System Software Z1-7.1.

I could try Lido again but the smallest startup floppy I have doesn't have enough room and so I have to boot with one floppy and flip about 20 times back and forward to the Lido floppy in order to run Lido. Why Apple didn't load more into memory at a time I have no idea.

 

[Johnnya101]

If you really enjoy this thing, Id really get an SCSI2SD. You won't have issues like these, the thing will be silent except for the PSU fan. Or a floppy emu... (Don't think the III has an external floppy port for it though , can plug it into floppy header) Or this is when an external dive comes in handy.

I KNOW proDOS should be showing up, because I remember seeing it the other day...

 

[rshenz]

I actually have a SCSI2SD ordered. I am still working through the best way to partition and format the SD card for it. If you have any recommendations please let me know. Probably another couple of weeks before the SCSI2SD arrives.

Thanks again.

 

[joethezombie]

i'll take a look at mine tomorrow and see if i can offer some tips. i have two prodos partitions on my desktop. i can't remember positively if i used lido since it's been a while, but i hardly ever use anything else-- especially not the apple tool because it's so dang sloooow!

 

[Johnnya101]

WHY is that Apple HDSC so slow? It took like a half hour to initialize 1 GB!

 

[joethezombie]

rshenz,

I took another look at this today, and after playing with the hardware, I remember now!  So this was quite a journey when I set it up a few months back because I too couldn't get the darn ProDOS partitions to show up.  I went through every partitioner I know of, and these are the results:

1st off, our beloved Lido, although it creates the ProDOS partition, will not initialize it.  It just sits in the partition table, unable to be named or accessed.

FWB Toolkit, it can not create ProDOS partitions at all.

Anubis, it too can not create ProDOS partitions.

Silverlining, it can create the ProDOS partition, but will not initialize it either-- just like Lido.  (side note, this is one complicated piece of software.  Not intuitive at all!)

Finally, the patched version of Apple HD SC setup that worked for me is

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/download.php?id=1823

This little bugger was fast, easy, and I setup 2 HFS partitions and 2 ProDOS partitions.  All show up on my desktop with the proper extension loaded.  In fact, I just did it a again with an SCSI2SD hanging of the external SCSI port and have 4 ProDOS partitions and 4 HFS partitions on my desktop.

This worked under 7.1 update 3.  Best of luck, let me know if you run into any hiccups!

 

[Themk]

That makes sense joe, I remember creating a ProDOS partition on my SE/30 using HD SC Setup. That was a little while ago, but it did work.

 

[rshenz]

Thanks for all the help. Unfortunately even with the patched version given above I only get these options for a new partition.

Mac Driver

Scratch

A/UX Autorecovery

A/UX Root&Usr slice 0

A/UX Swap slice 1

A/UX Root slice 0

A/UX Usr slice 2

Free A/UX slice 3

Free A/UX slice 4

Free A/UX slice 5

Additional Mac Volume

Misc A/UX

I think there is a problem with my disk because I don't get the option to initialise it. I will try again when my SCSI2SD arrives.

Thanks again.

 

[Themk]

Remember ProDOS has a 32MB limit on its size. Perhaps you aren't getting that because you are trying to initialize a partition larger than ProDOS' limit? I could be wrong though, and this is for creating a new partition where you enter in the size. Got to go pull out HD SC setup and check myself. I do know I have created ProDOS partitions in it before.

 

[joethezombie]

ProDOS won't show up as a partition type unless the Apple driver has been "initialized" on the drive firstly.  So, if you used a 3rd party partitioning utility, you won't be able to add a ProDOS partition and it will not be shown in the list of available types.  You need to use the HD SC Setup (patched if needed) to initialize the drive beforehand .  This WILL DELETE ALL DATA on the drive.  Afterwords, you should be able to add ProDOS partitions.  The HDSC setup will enforce the 32MB drive limit on ProDOS partitions.

 

[rshenz]

I got my SCSI2SD and after setting it up the drive was recognised by the patched version of HD SC setup and it all "just worked".

Thanks for all of the help.

 

[joethezombie]

Ah, very good to hear. I really love the //e card and scsi2sd. I hung a floppyemu off the y-cable for dos 3.3 disk images fun. Too bad there isn't a way to load 3.3 images from off the Mac side... that would be dreamy!

 

[Realitystorm]

Ah, very good to hear. I really love the //e card and scsi2sd. I hung a floppyemu off the y-cable for dos 3.3 disk images fun. Too bad there isn't a way to load 3.3 images from off the Mac side... that would be dreamy!

There is.... sorta, for some.

http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Docs/Dos33Launcher_Docs.txt

ftp://www.gno.org/pub/apple2/appledos33/utils/launchers/

I was playing with it before I packed everything away a couple of years ago.  Will post a how to on my blog once I get myself set up again. It let me store dos 3.3 images on a prodos partition and launch them with the launcher.... a bit hit and miss for which ones will or will not work.