#AMaxIV & WB 3.1
6 messages in this thread
Steven:
Well, the answer was, as you suggested, to use the Mac DiskTools diskette. For
some reason this diskette would boot the system while the install disk would
not. I now have WB 3.1, AMax IV with System 7.1.1 running like clockwork on my
A3000 using an external dbk HD floppy drive. I know the process works quite
well, because in trying to get my Bernoulli 44 MB drive formated I accidently
reformated my Amax partition on the harddrive and had to start all over. It
least I can now give the recipe and know it has been performed several times
with out a glitch.
First, if you wish to make sure your Amax partition is ok, you can reformat it
under WB3.1 and then carry on with the install. However, if you have stuff on
the partition you can just head into AMax IV.
Second, run AMax IV from the workbench by clicking on the icon. Do whatever
AMax IV configurations that might be need for the hardware in your system.
Then put the Mac DiskTool diskette in the HD floppy and hit the Start AMax IV
button. The HD floppy will grind away for a while (the system is pretty slow)
and if it is the first time you started it will say that the Not A Mac Drive
and ask if you want to format it. Say yes, as there must be something wrong
with the format on the drive. When I had the earlier system on the drive it
did not ask if I wanted to format it, but after I accidently formated it under
WB3.1, then I had to say format it. It does not do a complete format; it just
writes a directory. It appears that the WB3.1 format and the Mac are
compatible. However, if there is something wrong with the disk it will go
through the compete format process.
Third, after (if needed) the formating process, evenything else gets loaded and
you have a harddisk icon, the DiskTools icon and the AMax IV-Utilities icon (as
a minimum, you might have other icons if you have other things on your system).
To be sure, open the Disk Doctor and check to see if the harddisk is said to be
ok by hitting the verify button. If it isn't ok, hit the repair button. If
this says it doesn't work or if you go back and hit the verify button again and
it still won't verify, go up to the Options pull-down menu and select erase
disk. For some reason this will reformat the disk even if the previous
formating failed. In general, this will reformat the disk and not just create
a directory. I guess it is a forced formating.
Fourth, if everything is still going ok, then drag the System Folder on the
DiskTools diskette onto the harddrive, .i.e. copy the System to your harddrive.
Restart the computer but be sure to remove the DiskTools diskette from the
floppy drive or it will again go to it.
Fifth, the system should boot to the harddrive. The system that was copied is
a minimum, so at this point put in the first Install diskette in the HD floppy
drive and then click on the Installer and if there is nothing wrong it will go
through the standard install procedure. I just used the standard install. I
did not need to use the customized install. After the install it says the
system must be rebooted; I did that. The system came up and I went into the
Controls Panel under the apple and selected monitors and changed it to a color
monitor. At that point I had a color (slow running) Mac.
Well, thanks Steven again for the suggestion that saved the day. I have
written this procedure in detail for those that have been following the
struggle.
Regards,
Norm
Norm,
Hey, Hey!! Well, got it working, whataya know. You were, btw, sort of
lucky about dragging the system file from Disk Tools. That doesn't always
work, you know. That system file is so minimal that you're often lucky it even
boots. What I normally do is eject the Disk Tools disk and pop in the Install
disk and just run the install program. But it worked, so hey, who cares?
I've installed so many Mac systems over the years that there aren't too
many situations I haven't run into. Needless to say there are some basic
things one needs to do when installing systems on Macs if an install fails for
some reason. With the Amiga emulators, sometimes the problems are more
profound than on a real Mac. Well, glad you got things going, and I'm even
happier to know my help worked!! It's always rewarding when you guess right.
Steven:
>>Hey, Hey!! Well, got it working, whataya know. You were, btw, sort
of lucky about dragging the system file from Disk Tools. That doesn't always
work, you know. That system file is so minimal that you're often lucky it even
boots. What I normally do is eject the Disk Tools disk and pop in the Install
disk and just run the install program. But it worked, so hey, who cares?<<
Actually, the first time I installed the System 7.1.1 I did it just like you
said. I ejected the DiskTools and put in the Install disk. However, after I
reformated the Amax partition with WB3.1, it didn't work. After I popped out
the DiskTools diskette and put in the Install diskette, I kept getting a Finder
error and would have to A-A-Ctrl to get out of the process as the Restart
button would not break the process. It might be how I ejected the disk …. I
am not certain if I did a correct eject using the system or if I just popped it
out, which would probably have generated the Finder error. If I trash my
system again, I will try to use the Install disk again. Maybe if some one is
trying to get their system up they might eject correctly the DiskTools diskette
and put in the Install disk rather than dragging the System from the DiskTools
diskette. I think that will work and may be the best way to do it. One will
just have to be certain they eject the Disktools correctly!
Norman,
If you have the System upgrade disks (what you might get if you already
own a Mac system and are upgrading from, say System 7.0 to 7.1), the Install
One disk may not be bootable and may not have a functional system file. That
may be why you had a problem, although it's not necessarily the only reason one
can have a problem. However, if what you did worked, then I wouldn't make a
point of doing something different.
You can eject the disk without going through the correct Mac procedure,
and sometimes all that happens is Amax puts up the little titlebar icon asking
you to reinsert the disk. Amax IV, however, no longer displays that flashing
disk icon for ejects, if I remember correctly. The docs, I think, said just to
be sure to wait for all disk activity to cease before ejecting a disk after you
drag it to the trashcan. The other way to eject without dragging is to use
Command-E. This latter is the "proper" way to eject the boot disk when you
don't want the boot disk to "lost". It's also what you need to do, usually,
when you do a disk to disk copy in a one drive machine.
Steven:
You are probably right, but I am not sure if I have the upgrade disks, but I
really think the problem was that I didn't do a proper eject of the DiskTools
disk. Also when I had System 7.0 on the harddrive the System 7.1 install still
would not come up properly, so I had to use the DiskTools method. I am not
certain if the dkb floppy can register an eject if I just pop it out The dkb
floppy is a modified ibm type floppy and has no eject properties to it all. I
think this is a fact that dkb owners will have to look out for.
Regards,
Norm
Norm,
Well, Macs are real peculiar about disk ejection and if it isn't done
properly through the OS, you can really have major problems. Whatever you did,
you did it right and it worked, so I wouldn't look for a new way to do it — if
it ain't broke, don't fix it is my motto.
Steve