🚀 go-pugleaf

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

> 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,

In itself it means nothing, like plenty of people Hisoft just take an
internal drive and badge it as their own.

> not sure if that
> means anything because HiSoft make Amiga software and hardware
> interfaces etc (they do a SCSI interface and CD-ROM drives)

It should be fine anyway, I used one of their CDs on my mac with no
probs.
 
> 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 (this is
> where I come in :) but we can't see anything like that there - there
> is nothing about Squirrels that seems relevant there.

Tell him to go to www.dowload.com (or any better site if he knows of
one) and get SCSI probe, it will tell him what mechanism the drive uses,
mine was a Toshiba.

>  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? 

No.

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

Apple may have the drivers for thier drives on their site but they tend
to work only with Apple brand drives, might be worth trying anyway.
Otherwise your only real choice is to use FWB CD ROM Toolkit which most
Apple dealers will gladly sell you.

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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Steve Firth <filter@firthcom.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> Rebecca and Rowland <real-address-in-sig@flurbletigibbet.rhubarb.foobar>
> wrote:
> 
> > FWB's Hard Disc
> > Tookit, which, I believe, will mount a CD-ROM drive;
> 
> No, you need CD-ROM Toolkit which is a different thing and is sold
> separately from HDT.

Righto - ta.

Rowland.

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Iain Hibbert <plunky@skate.demon.co.uk> writes:
> a chance that this will work without downloading a driver?  if not, can
> anybody advise where I might find a CD-ROM driver?  (tis a SCSI drive,
> it should be standard..?)

that was me, and I have to report no luck, but I'm going on holiday for 
a couple of weeks..  I did try the System 7.6 driver and also another
one that a kind soul sent me, but the best we got was the busy pointer
when we inserted a CD, which says to me that the drive is working to
some extent but that maybe the CD's are not compatible (we only had ISO
CD's to try.).  I did consider that some of the extensions he had on
may be incompatible also but not sure about that..

thanks to all who tried to help though, I will probably be back in a few
weeks with more questions.

iain