🚀 go-pugleaf

lindahl@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Charlie Lindahl) writes:

> A friend of mine purchased a SYQUEST 45M removable drive a few months ago. He
> came over to my place to download some stuff, and we then discovered that 
> the LaCIE formatter/INIT appears not to be compatible with the EHMAN 
> counterparts (EHMAN makes an inexpensive---and reliable---SYQUEST drive). 

> Has anyone else run into this problem? It is NOT meant to be a slight against
> LaCIE, my friend and I just want to know why there is an apparent compatibility

The problem is that LaCie thinks that is is wise to use a non-standard partition
map on cartridges created with their SilverLining stuff.

To summarize:
There are two kinds of partition maps (kind of table on the disks that describes
where the driver is, where the data partitions are etc.). Some formatters
use the old partition map (as defined in Inside Mac volume IV). Other ones use
the new scheme (Inside Mac volume V).
Two problems can occur:
cartridge made with old map, using driver which only understands new (or the
other way around).
cartridge made with nonstandard partition map (not one of the two schemes found
in Inside Mac).
In the first case, the software (INIT in this case) should be upgraded to
conform better to IM.

The SilverLining people, however, thought that is would be nice to use some
non-standard variant of the old partitioning scheme. This means that their
cartridges are only usable with their drivers.

I can offer you two solutions:
1. Junk the LaCie software and use something better (yes I know that I'm
   going to be flamed for this :-)). You will then have standard partition
   maps and cartridges that every other driver can also read.
2. Put the cartridge in the drive and reboot. This will cause the LaCie
   driver to be loaded. The Lacie driver should be able to read the
   cartridge.

--maarten

--
In real life:	Maarten Carels
		Computer Science Department
		University of Amsterdam
email:		maarten@fwi.uva.nl