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Classic Restorations

- 2007.04.25

With these patches and tips, you'll never need an unreliable,inconvenient third-party hard disk driver again.

Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup are the standard tools thateveryone has used to prepare vintage Macintosh hard drives. They'renot as glamorous as FWB Hard Disk Toolkit or SoftRAID, but they're dependableday-in and day-out computing companions.

Their biggest limitation is that they are only compatible with adrive that came stock in a Mac.

Since we often upgrade our vintage Macs with more modern harddrives, we've been forced to use third-party hard disk drivers.This is inconvenient (and may even be technically illegal). Also,while many have had good luck with third-party hard disk drivers,they've been a source of heartache for me.

Wouldn't it be great it we could just use the appropriate Appletool with any hard drive?

With these patches, it is possible - and it works great!

Introducing the Tools

Apple HD SC Setup (named for the first external SCSI hard drivefor Macs, Apple's 20-megabyte HD SC) is the venerable old standby.When Macs started coming with internal hard drives, its audiencebroadened, but its name never changed.

Drive Setup arose with the introduction of the Power Macs in1994. When the LC 630 shipped afew months later, its IDE hard disk was also to be formatted withDrive Setup. Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup coexisted untilMac OS 7.6, which dropped theolder program.

Two versions of Drive Setup are of current interest: 1.5 and1.7.3. There are a few versions of Drive Setup newer than 1.7.3,but they are not available for download, so we won't worry aboutthem. Drive Setup 1.7.3 does a fine enough job all the way up toMac OS 9.2.2.

Choosing Your Formatter

The best tool to use depends upon your Macintosh situation.

For all Macs running 'old' System Software from 6.0.1 through7.1.1, I recommend Apple HD SC Setup. It is broadly compatible withthese older System releases and is the tool they were designed towork with.

When I updated from HD SC Setup to DriveSetup on my SE/30, my hard drive performance doubled!

For 68030 and 68040 Macs (like MacII and Quadra models) runningnewer Systems from 7.5 up to 8.1, I recommend using Drive Setup1.5. Using Drive Setup instead of HD SC Setup can increase speedunder System 7.5, and it's required for 7.6, 8.0, and 8.1. When Iupdated from HD SC Setup to Drive Setup on my SE/30, my hard drive performancedoubled!

This version avoids a couple of nasty bugs present on 680x0 Macsin Drive Setup 1.6 and higher. See Joerg Erdei'sDrive Setup FAQ for more information on why version 1.5 is thebest Drive Setup for 680x0 Macs.

For Power Macs, I recommend Drive Setup 1.7.3 regardless ofSystem software version. This latest downloadable version iscompatible back to System 7.1.2 on the NuBus Power Macs and up to9.2.2 on the last Classic-booting eMacs.

HD SC Setup

HD SC Setup is easy to download and patch. Grab the latestversion (7.5.3) of the program from Apple (link at end of article).Next, download thispatch. It will unstuff into a simple application that updatesyour copy of HD SC Setup to work on any drive.

Now you can format any extra hard drives by hooking them up toyour Mac or copy the patched version onto your boot disks. Enjoyyour newfound freedom to use Apple's HD SC Setup with any SCSIdrive!

Drive Setup

Patching Drive Setup is also a simple two-step process. Choosethe appropriate version of Drive Setup and download it (links atend of article). Make sure to grab the right patch, too: version 1.5 or version 1.7.3. Unpack the program andthe patch, launch the patcher, and follow the directions.

When you're done, you'll have a new copy of Drive Setup thatidentifies itself as having been patched. Launch this applicationor copy it to your boot disks and enjoy genuine Apple drivers onany hard drive!

Driven by Simplicity

As you can see, it's easy to use Apple's hard disk tools withany drive you might have. You'll gain the familiarity of the oldstandby tools and can forget all the hassles of discontinued,hard-to-find commercial software.

Next time you need to format a hard disk connected to a vintageMacintosh, consider using HD SC Setup or Drive Setup in theirpatched incarnations. I think you'll like the experience.

Download Links

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