SCSIProbe is a Control Panel Device (cdev) useful for identifying and mounting devices on the SCSI bus. With SCSIProbe, you can determine the device type, vendor name, product name and product version for every device on the bus. SCSIProbe also includes a StartUp Extension (INIT) that can be used to mount volumes without opening the cdev. SCSIProbe is System 7 friendly and balloon help is always available.
INSTALLING:
To install SCSIProbe, simply drag the icon into the System Folder. To use SCSIProbe under System 6.x.x, select “Control Panel” from under the Apple menu and select the SCSIProbe icon. Under 7.x.x, open the “Control Panels” folder (inside the System Folder) and double-click the SCSIProbe icon. Upon opening, SCSIProbe will display a list, showing all available devices on the SCSI bus:
To update the list to display a device that may have been powered up after SCSIProbe was opened, click the “Update” button (or type “U” or hit “Return”). SCSIProbe will then rescan the bus and update the window with any changes (in order to mount a volume, it must first be displayed in the SCSI list).
It is possible to reset the SCSI bus in case a device is not responding, by holding down the option key. This will cause the “Update” button to change to “Reset”, and clicking it will reset and rescan the bus.
To mount volumes currently not mounted, simply click the “Mount” button (or type “M” or hit “Enter”). SCSIProbe will attempt to mount all volumes, including drives with multiple partitions, to the desktop. In order for SCSIProbe to mount a volume from a drive that hasn't been mounted since the Mac has booted, it must first be seen in the SCSIProbe window.
OPTIONS:
SCSIProbe has the capability to mount volumes without first having to open SCSIProbe, close device drivers when ejecting removable media and to mount volumes during bootup. To enable these features, click the “Options…” button (or type the letter “O”). The following dialog will appear:
To enable the Volume Mounting Init, click the top checkbox and enter a “Hot Key” sequence. A “Hot Key” can be any combination of modifier keys (Command, Option, Shift, Control or none) and another key. After dismissing this dialog, anytime the “Hot Key” is typed, SCSIProbe will scan the SCSI bus and attempt to mount any volumes currently not mounted.
The second option is the ability to close device drivers when ejecting removable media (SyQuest, Bernoulli, etc.). This is a useful option when exchanging cartridges that have been initialized by different formatting packages.
When a cartridge is first being mounted, the device driver is first read from the media and then all accesses to the media are made through the driver. When ejecting a cartridge, the device driver normally stays open and waits for a new cartridge to be inserted. When a new cartridge is inserted, the previous driver will be used to access the media and that driver may not be compatible with the current media partition or password schemes and in best case, force a restart to mount the media and in worst case, compromise the data.
To avoid this problem, select the “Close Driver After Ejecting” option. This will force the driver that is on the media inserted to be used. One caveat with this option is that media will no longer be automatically mounted to the desktop (though the SCSIProbe Mount Key can be used to mount it) and therefore should only be used when working with cartridges formatted with different packages.
The third option in this dialog is the ability to mount volumes during the bootup process. This feature is handy when there is a drive on the bus that is slow in becoming ready and the Mac OS skips over it. SCSIProbe will scan the bus when its INIT is opened, and mount all volumes currently not mounted.
FEATURES:
SCSIProbe contains a number of features that are not immediately apparent. These features include visually identifying devices, resizing data fields and renaming the Macintosh model name.
To visually identify what device is at what SCSI ID, simply click on the SCSI ID of the item you want to identify. SCSIProbe will attempt to light the LED on the device located at this ID (this feature does not work with all devices, but does work with most drives).
Some SCSI devices return back more information than fits in the default field size. To change the size of the field, click on the line separating the fields, drag it to the left or right and release the mouse. The data will be redrawn to fit into the new field size:
To return the field to its default size, hold down the “Option” key and click on the line.
To rename the Macintosh name (and optionally add or remove the word “MACINTOSH”), click on the product name. The following dialog will appear:
Type a new name in the edit field and determine if you want the word “MACINTOSH” to proceed the name. Click “OK” to save changes and the new name will appear in the SCSIProbe window.
This same dialog will appear when SCSIProbe starts up on a Macintosh model that is currently not in its list of models. A similar dialog will also appear when it locates a SCSI device it does not recognize allowing you to provide a name for the device.
