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7.6 will not boot to partition # 2 (Color Classic II)

mraroid

mraroid

6502
Hi...
 
I have a CF card for a hard drive in my Color Classic II.  I have the CF card partitioned into 4 hard drives, each a little under 4GBs large.  I have installed 7.6 from a apple branded CD on drive #1 and drive # 2. I do no have any OS installed on drive # 3 and # 4.  I can move software to drives # 2, 3 and 4.  I just can't get the computer to boot to drive # 2.
 
I can boot to drive #1.  When I go to control panel, and to start up disk, I can see my 4 hard drives.  I select drive # 2.  Then I reboot.  No matter what I do, I always boot to drive # 1.
 
I had this problem in the past.  So I switched software that I was using to partition and format my CF card.  I switch to Lido 7.5.6.  It seemed to work great.  I built 4 partitions, and then I installed 7.6 on two of the partitions.  I have yet to build up the drives with any other software.  And I still have the same problem.  I go to start up disk, choose drive # 2 and reboot.  It boots to drive # 1.
 
I have looked at drive # 2 and it seems to be identical to drive # 1.  I have booted to the Norton emergency disk and ran a scan on drive # 2 and it could not find any thing wrong.  Disk first aid says the drive is fine.
 
Do I need to do some kind of special magic to boot to another partition?
 
I can't fugue out what to try next.  Suggestions welcome.
 
Thanks
 
mraroid

 
AFAIK, you can only boot from the first partition on a disk. My suggestion: Install multiple system folders on one partition, and then use something like SystemPicker to boot the different folders. You can also manually bless and de-bless them too.

 
Thanks again Themk for your help.  Well, this is really irritating.  I had planed on rolling in the LC 575 logic board into my Color Classic one day.  The plan was to have 7.6.1 on one partition, and then install 8.1 on another.  Do you know if 8.1 will let me boot back to drive #1 where 7.6.1 is installed?

My master plan was to install 7.1 and maybe 7.5 and then boot to which ever OS I wanted to play with - having 4 different ones to choose from.

What is the "Start up Disk" icon in control panel suppose to do anyway?  

I will read up on SystemPicker.  So if I understand you correctly, I could install, say 7.1 onto the same partition that I have 7.6 installed on?  And then using SystemPicker choose which System Folder to boot to?

mraroid

 
Themk....

I found SystemPicker here:

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1854-system-picker

I don't know if System Picker will allow me to do this or not, but I thought I would install 7.6.1 on one partition, and then, say 7.1 on another partition.  System Picker may want me to have both live on the same partition.  Not sure until I install it and read about it.

I was reading a post on the Low End Mac page that confused me.  It seemed to say that one could boot to a different OS if they were installed on different partitions. Maybe they are talking about OS 6 and OS 7.....(??)  Here is what I read......

**************************************

System 6System 6 is sleek and fast. The whole operating system can run from a single floppy disk in about 300-400 KB of RAM, leaving plenty of room for most applications that run under System 6. Because it is so small, it also boots much more quickly than System 7.

Like System 7, it allows you to have more than one program active at a time. Unlike System 7, you can turn MultiFinder off under System 6.

Why Not Use Both?Fortunately, you don't have to pick one or the other. There are several ways you can switch between System 6 and System 7.

  1. Create a system floppy for your Mac for each OS. Switch operating systems by booting from the other boot disk.
  2. Create a system floppy for the OS you seldom use. To boot that system, just insert the system disk at startup; your Mac will automatically boot from the floppy instead of the hard drive.
  3. Use two hard drives, one for each OS - they're certainly cheap enough these days. Use the Startup Disk control panel to choose which system you'll boot from. (Exception: The Mac Plus loads the first system it finds in this order SCSI ID 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.)
  4. Partition your hard drive and install each OS on a separate partition. Again, use the Startup Disk control panel to choose which partition to boot from. (Exception: The Mac Plus loads the first system on the partition that comes first alphabetically. In that case, make sure the partition you want to boot from come earlier in alphabetical order.)
  5. Use System Picker.

******************************************************

Here is a link to the entire page:

http://lowendmac.com/oldmac/compact3.html

mraroid

 
You can use any partition you want, but if it is on the same physical disk, the computer will generally boot from the first one with a valid System folder. UNLESS you use something like Pmount (part of the Lido software) to declare which partition should be the boot partition.

 
Ah!  OK.  Thank you just.in.time.....

I did use Libo to partition my CF disk.  I will look at Pmount. 

The SCSI2CF card I use is very small (thin). I will enclose a photo.  I could stack one on top of the other in my Color Classic.  But I am not sure how to run the ribbon cable to both drives.  I have seen "Y" connectors for the power cable....  Maybe the same is available for the ribbon cable....?

mraroid

emulator.jpg

 
Anyone?  My window is closing on having a buddy bring this into ecuador from the US.  I will order it tomorrow.  It looks like the one in my Color Classic, but.......  I don't know for sure....

mraroid

 
No. Those cables will not work in your Color Classic chassis. The existing SCSI cable is permanently attached to the logic board backplane connector, so it can't be replaced with a cable like this without serious hacking.

I'm pretty sure that a male IDC50 to 2x female IDC50 cable doesn't exist.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
No that one won't fit either. Each connector is the wrong gender and the CN50 connector isn't the same as an IDC50 connector. It's the Centronics-style 50-pin connector often seen on external hard drive enclosures.

 
OK.  Thanks again Roslberg.  I will look for Centronics-style 50-pin connector and see what I come up with.  I might just have to give up....

mraroid

 
Sorry, what I meant is that the CN50 (Centronics 50) connector in your last link is the wrong type of connection. If a suitable cable exists, it will have one male IDC50 connector and two female IDC50 connectors. It's not a standard configuration for a SCSI cable. There is a chance that such a cable would have signalling issues, since SCSI can be prone to crosstalk as a symptom of attenuation if cabling is too long. Extending the cabling in this way may not work properly, but then again, it may work perfectly.

EDIT: I'm not familiar with your SCSI CF device's configuration options, but I've worked with the SCSI2SD a bit. One option it has is to split the memory card into up to four virtual SCSI hard drives, each with its own unique SCSI ID. It might be worth investigating if your adapter has a similar capability.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Humm.  I will read my SCSI2CF card data again.  I will post a pdf of it here.  Perhaps I can do that.  I wanted to boot to a different OS in my Color Classic  - from 71. to 8.1. 

right now I have a SanDisk 16GB CF card in it, divided into 4 partitions, each just slightly under 4GBs large. 

The resistors arrived from Mosure.  I hope to do the mod to my 575 card soon and roll that in.....

Thanks for helping me.  I don't understand SCSI chains and terminations like I would like.

mraroid

CF_AZTECMONSTER_MN_E_13 (1).pdf

 

Attachments

Rather than trying to find a specialized cable, why not just get a larger CF card? In theory you could then split it into two partitions, assign each partition a unique SCSI ID, and once that is setup with the SCSI2CF (assuming it supports that like the SCSI2SD), use Lido to make smaller partitions within those two big partitions? It would act like two physical drives, each with several partitions.

 
You have read my mind just.in.time.
 
I bought a SanDisk Pro 16GBs:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Compact-Memory-SDCFXPS-016G-X46/dp/B00ECEVE50/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1499530594&sr=8-5&keywords=sandisk+CF
 
My idea was to partition that one CF card into 4 partitions.  I wanted to install 7.1., 7.5, 7.6.1 and 8.1 (I have a LC 575 logic board almost ready to slide into the Color Classic).
 
My original idea was to go to control panel, and using the "start up disk" icon, choose which OS to boot to.
 
But after many, many tries, I could only boot to the first partition.  Even if I had a error free install of an OS on another partition.  Finally, Themk posted a message that said I needed at least two "physical" hard drives in my Color Classic if I wanted to boot to another partition.
 
My SCSI2CF card is very small and thin. I will enclose a pdf of my SCSI2CF card I am using. I thought about stacking one on top of the other so I could have one CF card installed in each of the two SCSI2CF adapters.  Finding the correct "Y" cable proved difficult.  Then I learned that it could take errors on the cable.  So I have given up on that idea. Also, with my SCSI2CF adaptor, it may not be possible to give each partition a unique SCSI ID.  I am not skillee enought yet to read the pdf of the CF adaptor and tell.
 
I want to learn different classic OSs, starting with 6.  But I live in the middle of nowhere in Ecuador and it is not like I can go to Craig's list or ebay and by stuff and have it shipped here.  I pad around $170 for a small hand full of resistors, caps and a few zener diodes.  I also have to pay Ecuador customs a fee to import.  Usually, the lowest fee for anything (a handkerchief for example) is $52.50.  So buying a few more macs will probably not work for me.  I will probably finish my mod of the 575 board and then install it in the Color Classic and install 8.1.
 
I have a CD reader hooked up to my Color Classic.  I hope to install a CD reader/writer one day.
 
My Color Classic is on line now, so I can down load many files that I need.  Bu the web sits I go to have to be old time 68K mac friendly or else they will not load.
 
If I may, I want to give a big shout out to 68K member 1008COM for his web site of older mac software.  This site will run perfect even using Netscape 2.02:

http://www.macfixer.com/vintage-software/
 
If you have internet access on one of your older 68K macs, here is a thread with other sites that you can surf, mostly with out issue:

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/27572-web-sites-your-68k-mac-can-still-surf-os-6-to-os-7/
 
I guess I need a much older Mac, like a old Mac laptop that can run 9.22.  A machine that old would probably let me down load and make floppy disks for my Color Classic.  My powerbook is just to new.....
 
mraroid
 
 
 
 
 
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