adaptable backup disk

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Laurent S. - 23 Sep 2006 04:13 GMT

*** adaptable backup disk

Dear Hard Disk Gourous,

I am setting up a Mac hard disk (IDE ATA 320 Go)
for backups from various Macs.

I would like it to be *as mobile as possible* in the sense
that it can serve

(A) under OS8.6, OS9, and OSX >= 10.3, AND
(B) as internal IDE, or as FireWire 400 (in external box)

So far, I can achieve (A) or (B). And happily, the whole
disk is visible in either case from all named systems.

BUT I cannot yet achieve (A) AND (B). Suggestions?

Cordially,

Laurent S.

PS. I have access to many Mac OSs and I expect
that recent Apple utilities will help.

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Laurent S. - 23 Sep 2006 04:24 GMT

*** re: adaptable backup disk

Dear Hard Disk Gourous,

Sorry, I was not very clear. The problem is that
I cannot get the disk to work both
as an internal IDE and as an external FireWire
(without repartitioning and reinitializing).

Cordially,

Laurent S.

PS. I have access to many Mac OSs and I expect
that recent Apple utilities will help.

Reply to this Message

Neill Massello - 23 Sep 2006 06:36 GMT

> Sorry, I was not very clear. The problem is that
> I cannot get the disk to work both
> as an internal IDE and as an external FireWire
> (without repartitioning and reinitializing).

That's right. To work internally with OS versions older than OS X, the
drive must contain Mac driver partitions, and that requires erasing or
repartitioning the entire drive (once) with Disk Utility. When used as a
FireWire drive, the driver partitions on the disk will be ignored.

Reply to this Message

Nullibicity - 23 Sep 2006 20:20 GMT

> > Sorry, I was not very clear. The problem is that
> > I cannot get the disk to work both
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> repartitioning the entire drive (once) with Disk Utility. When used as a
> FireWire drive, the driver partitions on the disk will be ignored.

So can't one install the OS 9 disk drivers when first
initializing/partitioning? I have put an IDE drive in a FireWire case,
initialized with Disk Utility in OS X (because Drive Setup in OS 9 can't
see the FireWire bus, as far as I can tell), and then the drive shows up
in both OS 9 and X. If the poster did what I did, would it be possible
to later take the drive out of the FireWire case and mount it on an
internal ATA bus, or would that damage the drive and/or its contents?

Signature

Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/

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Neill Massello - 23 Sep 2006 21:53 GMT

> So can't one install the OS 9 disk drivers when first
> initializing/partitioning? I have put an IDE drive in a FireWire case,
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> to later take the drive out of the FireWire case and mount it on an
> internal ATA bus, or would that damage the drive and/or its contents?

For external drives, Disk Utility's default option is to "Install Mac OS
9 Disk Drivers" when partitioning or erasing the drive. (This option is
no longer available for internal drives if Disk Utility is running on a
Mac that cannot start up in OS 9.) Once the drivers have been installed,
the drive should be fully usable when removed from the external
enclosure and installed in a Mac running OS 9.

The drivers are in invisible partitions at the beginning of the disk,
right after the partition map. There's no non-destructive way to install
them, so the OP will have to back up any data he wants to save from the
drive before he erases or repartitions it.

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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / September 2006

adaptable backup disk