Re: [WinMac] OT: MacOS 8.6 disk drivers

Leonard Rosenthol(leonardr[at]lazerware.com)
Tue, 25 May 1999 10:44:36 -0500

At 9:34 AM -0500 5/25/99, Daniel L. Schwartz wrote:
> This is off the WinMac topic, but since the subject of disk drivers has
>come up, I've always recommended LaCie Silverlining. The current released
>version is 5.8.3, and although this version has been out for almost 2 years
>(for MacOS 8.0) it did NOT need updating for MacOS' 8.1 through 8.6.

        As long as you were only using it on a HFS disk and NOT an
HFS+ disk, that's probably true. The only reason that ANY disk
driver needed to be updated for 8.x was to support HFS+ - otherwise,
nothing has changed.

        Putting Silverlining on an HFS+ disk is about as safe as
putting the same disk in the microwave for a couple of minutes...

> Over the years I've found that FWB's HDT disk drivers have ALWAYS had
>"problems" of one sort or another, constantly requiring updating.

        They also provide more functionality (encrypted disks, etc.)
- and as we all know - with more features, comes more bugs. I also
believe that HDT supported MANY more devices than SilverLining did -
in terms of new removable media types that have appeared over the
years.

>And
>whenever you update a disk driver, you darn well better back up your
>data... Especially if it decides to move partitions around in order to
>accommodate more driver code. Yikes!

        Backing up is always a good thing. However, a MacOS disk
driver should NEVER have to move partitions to make room for the
driver code - that's not how drivers work on the Mac. Wintel is a
VERY different story.

LDR

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