Very Computer

Hi,
   I've just bought and installed a hard drive in the spare bay of my
7300/200 in preparation for SuSE 7.0 which I will getting soon. The
problem is that I can't get my mac to recognise the drive. System
profiler says:

Hard drive

Driver version:      Not available
Mac OS partitions:   0
Removable media:     No
Vendor:              COMPAQPC
Revision number      S99C
Product ID:          DDRS-39130W
Serial number:       Not available    
Unformated size:     8.47 GB

   There are 2 issue here to begin with. First, I was told it was IBM
and since Apple use IBM drives, it should be supported by the Apple
driver and second, that it was 9.1 Gig. The latter I'm not too worried
about since I doubt I'll ever need the space anyway but the manufacturer
is something I'm a bit peeved about.

   When I bring up all my volumes in Disk Setup, the program says that
my second drive "is unsupported". Is this because the Apple driver
doesn't cover Compaq drives? I don't necessarily mind that Mac can't
deal with the drive, but what are my chances that SuSE won't either?

   Should I return the drive and ask for what I was promised? The guys I
dealt with were pretty cheap and really easy to deal with and quite
helpful so I don't think they were trying to cheat me. However, nothing
was mentioned when we tried it out in the store and I had System
profiler id the drive as Compaq although I'd been told it was IBM.

   Finally, should I just wait until my CDs arrive and try and install
then or would it still be a waste of time?

   Sorry about the epic lenght of the post but I wanted to make sure I
didn't leave out any details that may be of some use in answering my
question. Any help will be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Jason

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    Well, it is still possible that the drive is an IBM, but refurbished and re-labelled as a Compaq HD. Strange,
though, that this change goes to the hardware information. (somebody correct me on this point).
    In fact drive setup identifies each drive from its name to see if it is supported. To manage to format it,
you could consider making an easy hack of drive setup: make a copy of it, then open it with ResEdit and find the
ressource which lists all disk names, and change the 'IBM' or 'IBM*' to 'COMPAQ*'. It may very well work. (at
your own risks, of course, it may be illegal with regards to Apple too, so forget it...)
    But it should not be necessary, since Linux will provide all the necessary tools to partition (using pdisk)
and format your disk (using mke2fs). So you should better wait for the SuSe. to arrive and do the partitionning&
formatting under linux.
    Note: you may have to partition before doing the installation, so use the MacOS version of pdisk, which
should be around somewhere.
    Note2: if you intend to use the disk for MacOS (HFS), then you should certainly have your disk exchanged,
because you cannot make MacOS partitions unless you use commercial tools (Hard Disk Toolkit)

Quote:> second, that it was 9.1 Gig. The latter I'm not too worried
> about since I doubt I'll ever need the space anyway but the manufacturer
> is something I'm a bit peeved about.

    Typical misunderstanding : computer people count one kilo as 1024, and marketing count it of course as 1000.
So if you translate that : 8.47*1024*1024*1024=9.1 10^9 bytes. So you've got your advertised size, but the unit
differs a little...

Quote:>  I don't necessarily mind that Mac can't
> deal with the drive, but what are my chances that SuSE won't either?

    IMHO, chances are very little. I doubt linux scsi driver make HD-brand dependant optimizations, so it should
work.

Quote:>    Finally, should I just wait until my CDs arrive and try and install
> then or would it still be a waste of time?

    Wait. It should work. Just in case, mention that to your store to say that you *may* bring back your disk but
that is very unlikely.

--
Vincent Favre-Nicolin                http://www.unige.ch/crystal/favrev/
Laboratoire de Cristallographie      Phone: +41 (22) 702 60 79
24 quai Ernest-Ansermet
CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland        Fax: +41 (22) 702 61 08

since MacOS 8.6 , all Drive Setup can format any disk.

    I'm not sure about that. Drive setup can format any IDE
disk, right. And any SCSI disk from known manufacturers
(i.e. : IBM*, QUANTUM*, SEAGATE*, etc..). But since it does
not expect a COMPAQ, it probably will refuse.

--
Vincent Favre-Nicolin                http://www.unige.ch/crystal/favrev/
Laboratoire de Cristallographie      Phone: +41 (22) 702 60 79
24 quai Ernest-Ansermet
CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland        Fax: +41 (22) 702 61 08

You were right Vincent. I ended up trying the hack you suggested and it
worked brilliantly. Thankyou very much. I doubt I would have gotten
anywhere at all without Gustilo's and your help.

Jason

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