Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jg2f+
From: jg2f+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jude Anand George)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Removable "HD"s -- are they worth it?
Message-ID: <4YrUi3200UkI0GQVwR@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 7 Aug 89 22:21:55 GMT
References: <9095@venera.isi.edu> <3000@blake.acs.washington.edu> <458@asterix.drev.dnd.ca> <20986@cup.portal.com>,
	<1384@draken.nada.kth.se>
Organization: Computing Systems, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 31
In-Reply-To: <1384@draken.nada.kth.se>

> Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.mac: 3-Aug-89 Re: Removable "HD"s -- are
> .. Olle Furberg@duvan.nada. (510)

> In article <20986@cup.portal.com> ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) writes:
> >
> >ps: If you though disk swapping with floppies was a pain, just try
> >copying a file from one cartridge to another!

>  I don't quite understand: is it possible to have several disks mounted,
> but
> only one disk station (diskdriver)?

>   All (software) drivers I've seen was rather stupid: you have to mount
> the
> disk manually through a cdev or DA each time you change disk.

>  What sort of software is awailable for those drives?

Some companies like MicroNet do use this scheme.

The Microtech driver does not use a DA or a cdev, however;  just insert
a disk and it mounts.  How?  They use an INIT which polls the drive
every so often to see if a disk has been inserted.  (This may sound
brain-damaged, but it's exactly how the standard floppy driver works,
too.)  Unfortunately, this INIT is currently incompatible with Desktop
Manager, so you'd have to do without the latter if you want to use the
drive.  I called Microtech tech support and they said a fix is in the
works.  Better be, since Desktop Manager is standard with System 7.0...

Jude George
jg2f+@andrew.cmu.edu