YDL fdisk says it can't find hard drive on new dual G4

[Grant Chesy]

Thank you!!! worked like a charm.

g

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Seufert [mailto:tas@mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 12:58 PM
To: yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Subject: Re: YDL fdisk says it can't find hard drive on new dual G4


On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, at 12:20  PM, Grant Chesy wrote:

> This is one of the latest G4s, the one with the four cooling holes at=20
> the bottom of the front, the metal drive bay covers, and that same=20
> silly exposed speaker cone at the top.
>
> I think Apple crippled this hardware to hide the IDE drive so people=20
> would have more trouble trying to install OS9 on the box.  The apple=20
> disk partioning software w/ OS 9.2.2 can't see the drive either.  If=20
> you install OSX, then do a software restore of a "special" OS 9.2.2,=20
> it works fine... even if you then delete the OSX.  Even at this point, =

> a standard OS 9.2.2 CD cannot see the drive, even though you can now=20
> boot directly into the restored "special" OS 9.2.2.

Nothing has been crippled.  The problem is simple: older versions of=20
9.2.2 do not have a driver for the ATA100 IDE controller, which is a=20
new feature not present on previous hardware.  Since your boot drive is=20
connected to the ATA100 bus, naturally you are going to have problems=20
when trying to use said older versions of 9.2.2.

Apple nearly always includes "special" versions of operating systems=20
with new hardware, simply because they almost always need to modify=20
drivers and/or add new ones.  The main difference with these machines=20
is that since they've decided OS X is now the primary OS, they aren't=20
including a standalone OS 9 install CD.  People who really want one can=20
apparently order them for $20, though were I in that situation I'd just=20
use Software Restore, tweak the resulting installation the way I liked=20
it, and then use Toast to create a bootable 9 CD that can "install" via=20
simple drag copy.

> Is there a similar (or completely different) workaround to get YDL=20
> installed on this box?

Move your HD to the ATA66 bus.  (Old) OS 9.2.2 and YDL 2.3 can see that=20
bus just fine, as it is identical to the ATA66 bus on the previous=20
generation of G4s.  The rear bay with the disks mounted vertically uses=20
the ATA100 bus, the front bay with the disks mounted horizontally uses=20
the ATA66 bus.

P.S. fdisk is the wrong tool to use on PowerMac; use pdisk instead. =20
(fdisk reads and writes MS-DOS partition tables, pdisk does the same=20
for Macintosh partition tables.)

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