This article contains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding the Drive Setup 1.0.x utility that ships with Power Macintosh models that use System 7.5.2 and is also available online.
Questions answered in this FAQ:
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1) With large volume support features, what is the maximum number of Macintosh HFS partitions that can be created on a single device?
2) The documentation for Drive Setup says that third-party hard drives are not supported. However, Drive Setup does support some third-party removable cartridge drives. Does this mean that if you have a third-party hard drive installed in your system, that Drive Setup will not see it? If it does see it, will all of the functions work? What about 3rd-party flavors of some of the drive mechanisms that we support?
3) Can you have a System Folder on each partition of a hard drive that has been formatted with Drive Setup? Can you boot from each of these partitions? Is this a 'supported' configuration?
4) How do each of the various options I can choose affect the way the hard drive is formatted? What are each of the features actually doing?
5) What's the difference between Drive Setup shipped with 7.5.2 and HDSC shipped with 7.5?
1) Question: With large volume support features, what is the maximum number of Macintosh HFS partitions that can be created on a single device?
Answer: The maximum number of partitions is always eight (8). It does not depend on the capacity of the device.
2) Question: The documentation for Drive Setup says that third-party hard drives are not supported. However, Drive Setup does support some third-party removable cartridge drives. Does this mean that if you have a third-party hard drive installed in your system, that Drive Setup will not see it? If it does see it, will all of the functions work? What about 3rd-party flavors of some of the drive mechanisms that we support?
Answer: Drive Setup only supports qualified Apple hard drives and some removable devices as listed in the Drive Setup Guide file. Unsupported hard drives will show up in the device list by name, however, if you select an unsupported hard drive you will get the message, "Cannot modify a disk in an unsupported drive."
When using this utility, it is possible to receive the message, "Unrecognized driver." This message means that the selected device is an Apple hard drive, but that it is currently using a third-party driver.
3) Question: Can you have a System Folder on each partition of a hard drive that has been formatted with Drive Setup? Can you boot from each of these partitions? Is this a 'supported' configuration?
Answer: Yes, this is a supported configuration. After using Drive Setup to partition your hard drive, you can put a System Folder on any (or all) of the hard drive's partitions. After putting a System Folder on a partition, use the "Startup Disk" control panel to select that partition as the startup volume.
4) Question: How do each of the various options I can choose affect the way the hard drive is formatted? What are each of the features actually doing?
Answer: There are four types of initialization with Apple's Drive Setup utility. They are:
i. Regular Initialization
A regular initialization erases the data on the disk and makes all the space on the disk available for use. Regular initialization is recommended for most disks. It is not necessary to initializae a new hard disk, since hard disks are factory-initialized.
ii. Low-level Format
A Low-level format erases all data from the disk plus any information about the disk's file structure and other structures. Since hard disks are factory-formatted, it is not necessary or recommended to do a low-level format for a hard disk. Users may choose to perform a low-level format on some hard disks older than five years since these hard disks may not have been formatted since the release of System 7.
iii. Initialization with the "zero all data" option
A regular initialization erases all data, but under certain conditions the data can be retrieved. If, for security purposes, you wish to be certain that the data can never be retrieved, this option replaces the data with a series of zeros so the data is overwritten and truly removed from the hard drive.
iv. Initializing using both the low-level and the "zero all data" options
This combines options 2 and 3 mentioned above. Both of these options will increase the time it will take to initialize a disk.
5) Question:: What's the difference between Drive Setup shipped with 7.5.2 and HDSC shipped with 7.5?
Answer: Drive Setup 1.0.x allows you to initialize, partition and test both SCSI and IDE hard disks. Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5 allows user to initialize, partition and test SCSI hard drives only. Drive Setup 1.0.x allows users to set different initialization options for both SCSI and IDE hard disks, while Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5 gives only one initialization option for SCSI hard disks.
These articles can help you locate the software update, Drive Setup 1.0.3, mentioned here:
• "Where To Find Apple Software Updates" -- Lists online services for free Apple software updates.
• "Obtaining Apple Product Support in the USA" -- Lists 800 numbers and online services for software updates, Apple support information, and a subset of the Apple Tech Info Library.
Article Change History:
11 Dec 1995 - Updated to latest version of Drive Setup.
15 Nov 1995 - Reviewed for technical accuracy.
02 Oct 1995 - Added information on the formatting options available.
