🚀 go-pugleaf

Iain Hibbert <plunky@skate.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> hello again!
> 
> A friend of mine came around the other day, asking for advice on a
> problem he has - he has a Mac (not sure which one, but its not a
> PowerMac) that he bought, but he has a CD-ROM drive that doesn't
> work - it seems that its a Hisoft Squirrel drive, not sure if that
> means anything because HiSoft make Amiga software and hardware
> interfaces etc (they do a SCSI interface and CD-ROM drives)
> 
> anyway, I haven't been to have a look yet so this is hearsay..
> apparently he can plug it in ok (tis external) but it never appears
> on the desktop - the guy he got the mac from said it works fine, but
> just needs the driver downloading from the Apple website 

Today's new word, kiddies: bollocks.

>(this is
> where I come in :) but we can't see anything like that there - there
> is nothing about Squirrels that seems relevant there..  I would guess
> he has System 7 installed (but not the System 7 install disks), is there
> a chance that this will work without downloading a driver? 

Not unless you can get a driver without downloading one - and you won't
find one at Apple's web site.  You can, by the way, get the System 7.0.1
installer discs from Apple's web site.  The thing is, there's been 7.1,
7.5 (up to 7.5.5), 7.6, 7.6.1, 8.0, and now 8.1 since then.  System
7.0.1 is very old.

> if not, can
> anybody advise where I might find a CD-ROM driver?  (tis a SCSI drive,
> it should be standard..?)

Well, the drive should work perfectly happily on the Mac's SCSI bus,
but...  Because not all SCSI CD-ROM drives are the same, Apple's CD-ROM
driver software will not mount a non-Apple CD-ROM drive (there is one
exception) so that no-one can whinge at Apple because it doesn't work
right *and* to try and persuade people to buy Apple CD-ROM drives
(because Apple provides up-to-date driver software with the OS; you have
to buy updated versions of third-party drivers).

Now then, what this means is that if you buy new a non-Apple CD-ROM
drive to use with a Mac, it's supplied with driver software to let it
mount on a Mac.

If he's not got this software, there are various things to do.  He could
try and get suitable driver software from the firm that made the drive
(given that it's Amiga kit, this probably won't help); he could buy
commercial software like the CharisMac Anubis utility or FWB's Hard Disc
Tookit, which, I believe, will mount a CD-ROM drive; he could see if
some kind person would email a CD-ROM driver that might work; or he
could see if he could get the Apple CD-ROM driver that came with System
7.6 (not 7.6.1, 7.5.5, or anything else but 7.6) because that is the one
Apple CD-ROM driver that will try and mount a non-Apple CD-ROM drive.

It's unlikely that he's using System 7; more likely that he'll be using
7.1 or 7.5.

Now then, I'd be happy to email a copy of a third-party CD-ROM extension
and/or the 7.6 Apple CD-ROM extension to try - interested?

Rowland.

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