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From: tappek@infonode.ingr.com (J. Kurt Tappe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Making my mac wait for my hd to get up to speed?
Message-ID: <1991Jun27.203839.25278@infonode.ingr.com>
Date: 27 Jun 91 20:38:39 GMT
References: <12145@hub.ucsb.edu> <0094A6A8.B6394460@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu> <12159@hub.ucsb.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL
Lines: 33

>(about making the Mac wait for hard drives and booting from
  the wrong ones because some are faster...)

First of all, let's get our terminology correct.  You are
not waiting for the hard drive to "boot."  You are waiting
for it to SPIN UP.  Every hard drive has two motors in it;
one is the main motor that keeps it spinning all day.  The
other is the motor that, when you first power up, gets the
hard drive from rest to normal spinning speed so the other
motor can take over.  Most hard drives don't take long to
spin up.  The Quantums that Apple uses are very good in
this regard; they all spin up very fast and long before
the Mac is ready to go look at them.  However, some drives
(especially SeaGates) are notorious for taking a long time
to spin up.  Some take as long as 15 seconds, and you get
a problem when the Mac goes out looking for a drive that
is not ready.  The amount of time the Mac waits for a
hard drive to get ready is the "time out" and it is a
variable that you can set if you have the proper utility.
I have a utility called "Set Timeout" that sets this
variable (though luckliy I have never had to use it). I
believe it (or a similar utility) can be found at one of
the normal Mac FTP sites (be it 36.44.0.6, 128.174.20.50,
or 141.211.165.34.)
Good luck!

Kurt

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