LoadADrive is a simple utility to mount a CD-ROM that wasn't switch on at startup without restarting your Macintosh. A bit more detailed: The Apple CD-ROM driver (I don't know if other CD-ROMs work the same way cause I only have an Apple CD-ROM at hand) scans the SCSI bus for a CD-ROM drive at startup. If it does not find one (because the drive is switched off) the CD-ROM driver will not be loaded. The driver is necessary to access the CD-ROM, you cannot use an utility that can mount hard disks to mount a CD-ROM. So you have to restart your Macintosh.
LoadADrive can load the Apple CD-ROM driver at any time !
LoadADrive is very easy to use: If you open it the first time it will ask you to select the CD-ROM driver. The driver is normally located in the Extensions Folder inside the System Folder and named 'Apple CD-ROM'. After that it tries to load the driver. If something went wrong or the driver is already loaded an Alert will be displayed. LoadADrive stores the location of the CD-ROM driver so you don't have to select the driver every time.
The location storage is an Alias, so renaming or moving the CD-ROM driver should not make it necessary to select the CD-ROM driver again. If you want to select a new driver with LoadADrive hold down the Command key while you open LoadADrive and you can select the driver again.
I have included the C source code, it has been compiled with MPW. I shouldn't be too difficult to port it to Symantec C.
LoadADrive needs System 7 or higher and should work on every machine (Power PC ?). It has been tested with Apple CD-ROM 4.0.1 and 5.0. I don't know if LoadADrive works with other CD-ROM drivers. Just try it !
Technical Note: LoadADrive checks if the CD-ROM diver has been loaded by opening it. LoadADrive stores the driver name (which has nothing to do with the file name of the driver) inside 'STR ' Resource 128. You may have to change this name if you use LoadADrive with none Apple drivers so LoadADrive does not complain it could not load the driver although it did.
LoadADrive is Freeware. If you want to send me something (Postcard, Beer, CD ...) you can do so but you don't have to. Commercial usage of LoadADrive must be licensed. LoadADrive can be out on CD or in any BBS only if the source and this small documentation is included. If LoadADrive is put on a CD it would be nice if I get one.
March 1994
Version 1.1
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Fix a serious bug that causes some Macs to freeze or crash if you restart or shutdown after using LoadADrive (I know it took some time to fix it, but the problem was that I never got this bug on my machine.)
Will work with FWB's CD-ROM Toolkit (at least with version 1.0.9) and the Spirit™ CD-ROM Driver Package (tested with version 1.21). You can now select those Control Panels.
My mailing address has changed (I know that's not interesting ;-)
