MacFormat 1995 October/macformat-029.iso/mac/Bomb Busters/SCSI Master™ 1.15/A WARNING!!!

Text File | 1994-03-15 | 7.9 KB | 154 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE INSTALLING SCSIMASTER™ 1.15.  YOU MAY BE
VERY SORRY IF YOU DON'T.  EVERYONE SHOULD READ ALL OF THIS DOCUMENT!

SCSIMaster™ has been successfully used on the following Macintosh
models: SE, II, IIx, Classic, LC, SI, Classic II, LC II.  It should
work on all 68000, 68020, and 68030 based Macs EXCEPT the Mac Plus.
However, ABSOLUTELY NO ASSURANCE is made that SCSIMaster™ will work
with your particular Mac and hard drive(s).  You assume all risk of
installing the software.  Back up ALL of your critical data BEFORE
installing SCSIMaster™.  You might need the backup.

SCSIMaster™ 1.15 is NOT compatible with the Mac Plus or any earlier
Macintosh models.  SCSIMaster™ 1.15 cannot be installed on a Mac
Plus.  It checks the ROM to see if it is running on a Mac Plus
and if so it notifies the user and exits.  On some pre Mac Plus
Macintosh models this alert may not be presented, however the driver
is still NOT compatible with those machines and should NOT be
installed on them.

SCSIMaster™ 1.15 has an updated SCSI driver that MAY be compatible
with 68040 based Macs.  However, it has NOT been tested on any
of those machines.  SCSIMaster™ 1.15 will alert the user when it
is run on a 68040 machine, however, the user may choose to continue
running the program.  This feature exists so that people can
test the driver on 68040 based Macs.  UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO
POSSIBLY HAVE YOUR MAC CRASH AT BOOT TIME AND THEN HAVE TO REMOVE
SCSIMASTER BY FOLLOWING THE PROCEDURE OUTLINED BELOW, DO NOT!!
INSTALL IT ON A 68040 BASED MAC.

If you want to use SCSIMaster™ on any Macintosh model that has not
been tested, then please read about what must be done to remove
SCSIMaster™ from your Macintosh in case of boot problems BEFORE
installing it on your computer.  If you own a model that has not
been tested and it has an internal hard drive and you do not know
how to open your Mac and disconnect the SCSI signal cable from the
internal SCSI disk drive, then you should NOT use SCSIMaster™.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!


If you have more than one SCSI hard drive connected to your Mac,
then we strongly suggest that you install SCSIMaster™ on only one
hard drive and make sure it works correctly before installing it on
the rest of the hard drives connected to your Mac.  If you have both
external and internal hard drives, then we suggest that you install
SCSIMaster™ first on an external hard drive as that is much easier
to disconnect from your Mac in case of problems than the internal
drive.

If you successfully install and use SCSIMaster™ on a Mac model not
listed above, please make sure to register and tell us which model
Mac you use SCSIMaster™ on.  If you have problems using SCSIMaster™
on any Mac please let us know.


BEFORE INSTALLING SCSIMaster™ ON ANY MACINTOSH.

Please make sure that you have a floppy disk from which you can
successfully boot your computer BEFORE you install SCSIMaster™.
It could save you much GRIEF.
Make sure you TEST the boot floppy by booting from it as well,
just to make sure that it works.  Copy SCSIMaster™ onto this
floppy so that it will be easy to remove SCSIMaster™ from your
hard drive if there are any problems.  Make sure that you have at
least one copy of SCSIMaster on a floppy disk.  Do NOT keep only
one copy stored on your hard drive.  If you do this and you have
a problem booting your Macintosh you will not be able to remove
SCSIMaster™ from your computer because the only copy you
have is on the hard drive.

SCSIMaster™ 1.1 was NOT compatible with 68040 based Macs.  The
driver caused those Macs (Quadras and Centris) to crash at boot time.
SCSIMaster™ 1.15 has an updated driver that MIGHT be compatible
with 68040 based Macs, but this has never been tested on those
machines.  If the problem with the earlier driver was cache related
then this new driver should work as it flushes the 68040 caches
when necessary.  However if this is not what was causing the problem
on the 68040 machines, then they will still crash at boot time.  We
would appreciate feedback from anyone with a 68040 based Mac that
is willing to test the new driver.  However, PLEASE read below
about what you will need to do if the driver doesn't work BEFORE
you install it on your machine.


WHAT TO DO IF YOU CAN'T BOOT YOUR MAC AFTER INSTALLING SCSIMaster™.

If your machine crashes at boot time then booting from a floppy
with the hard drive connected to the Mac SCSI bus will not be
successful.  The Mac will crash regardless of the fact that you
are trying to boot it from a floppy drive.  The problem is that
the Mac always reads SCSI drivers off of SCSI drives and calls
them to install themselves before it reads the system information
off the floppy you are trying to boot from.  If there is a problem
with the SCSI driver that causes the Mac to crash, then the Mac will
crash regardless of whether there is a floppy in the floppy drive
or not.

The solution is to disconnect the Mac from any SCSI disk drive that
has SCSIMaster™ installed on it.  Disconnecting all SCSI devices
will ensure that you can boot your Mac from the floppy drive.
After your Mac has booted, you must reconnect the SCSI
drive cable to your Mac SCSI bus while the Mac is still running.
Then make sure that the SCSI drive is powered up and running.
Then you can run SCSIMaster™ from the floppy and remove it from your
hard drive.  This is the easiest way to remove SCSIMaster™
from a computer that crashes at boot time after installation.
Of course you can also reformat your hard drive instead, but that
is not likely to be a very popular prospect.  Note that if you
install SCSIMaster™ on an internal SCSI drive, it still must be
disconnected from the Mac's SCSI bus.  This means that if you
install SCSIMaster™ on your Mac's internal hard drive and it crashes
at boot time after installation then you must remove the cover
of your Macintosh and unplug the SCSI drive control cable so that
the Mac can be booted successfully from its floppy drive.  The
SCSI drive power cable does not need to be disconnected from the
internal drive, just the SCSI signal cable.  The power connecter
has 2 or probably 4 colored wires running to it.  The signal
cable is a wide, thin ribbon cable with 50 wires in it.  Disconnect
only the signal cable.  After booting from the floppy, make sure
to reconnect the signal cable before running the SCSIMaster™
installer/remover program.  Make sure you notice which way the
SCSI ribbon cable is connected before you remove it so that you can
correctly reconnect the ribbon cable.

This then is the procedure to follow if your Mac crashes at boot
time and you do not want to reformat your hard drive.
1) Turn off both your Mac and the hard drive(s).
2) Disconnect the SCSI signal cable from the hard drive(s) with
SCSIMaster installed.  If SCSIMaster is installed on the internal
hard drive then you must remove the cover of your Mac and
disconnect the internal SCSI signal cable (a ribbon cable).
3) With the drive(s) disconnected, insert the boot floppy and
turn on your Mac.  If you have another hard drive still connected
to your Mac that does not have SCSIMaster™ installed, you may
boot off of that drive instead of the floppy.  Note however that
you must ensure that the SCSI bus is still properly terminated
with the SCSIMaster™ drive(s) removed.
4) After the Mac has booted, reconnect the SCSI signal cable and
if the drive is an external drive, turn on the external drive.
5) Run SCSIMaster™ off of the floppy or the hard drive you booted
the Mac with.
6) Select the SCSI id of the hard drive with SCSIMaster™ installed.
If you have only one hard drive connected to your Mac then it will
already be selected.
7) Click on the REMOVE button.
8) Restart your Mac.  It should boot just fine.

Note that SCSIMaster™ can be easily removed at any time from any
Mac that does not crash at boot time.  Simply run the SCSIMaster™
install program and click on the REMOVE button.  The only time
that the SCSI bus must be disconnected from the Mac in order to
remove SCSIMaster™ is when the Mac crashes at boot time.