Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!udel!princeton!phoenix!bskendig
From: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: SafeEject and 6.0.4
Message-ID: <11081@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 26 Oct 89 00:13:54 GMT
References: <9989@pucc.Princeton.EDU> <16360@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Reply-To: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Organization: Systems Engineering, NASA Space Station Freedom Project
Lines: 48

In article <16360@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> danno@dartmouth.edu (Secret Squirrel) writes:
>In article <9989@pucc.Princeton.EDU> FTWILSON@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes:
>>      It would appear that you should not use SafeEject with 6.0.4.
>>System 6.0.4 DOES move the head to the 79th (I think) track before
>>ejection of the disk, which, as I understand it, is the function of
>>SafeEject. (PS this is for FDHDs ONLY)
>
>"System 6.0.4 only eliminates the need for SafeEject if you have the FDHD."

Let me see if I can shed some light on the subject...

SafeEject was created in an attempt to frustrate hungry disk drives.  You
see, some 800k floppy (stiffy?) drives tended to grab the door of the disk
in them as they attempted to eject it.  This would ruin both the disk and the
drive, and made a lot of people quite unhappy.

The FDHD got around this problem by moving the read/write head to the very
edge of the disk before ejecting it, thereby making the head (the part which
would accidentally grab the floppy's protective door) miss the metal door
altogether.  This little work-around was implemented in the ROM of the new
FDHD logic board.

Now, someone got the idea that this would be a nifty thing to do for 800k
floppies too, so he wrote the SafeEject INIT that will move the head to the
edge of the disk whenever a 400k or 800k disk is ejected.  If you read the
documentation included with SafeEject, the author states that his program
doesn't bother catering to FDHD disks because the hardware does the job for
him.

I'm not sure where the thing about System 6.0.4 comes into it.  The new System
doesn't include any patches for the disk eject code, or, if it doesn't, Apple
is keeping hush-hush about it.  (Not likely.)

In summary: You still should use SafeEject with Systm 6.0.4 unless (a)
you don't want to, or (b) you always use FDHD disks and never 400k or 800k
ones.

Me, I go with (a).  I don't feel like having another unofficial INIT cluttering
up my system.  I like my drives, and they like me.

Anyway, that's that.  Any more flames?     >;)


-- 
| Brian S. Kendig       |  I feel more like I   | bskendig                   |
| Computer Engineering  |  did when I got here  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU     |
| Princeton University  |       than I do now.  | @PUCC.BITNET               |
| Systems Engineering, NASA Space Station Freedom / General Electric WP3     |