Newbie lost in front of a IIgs — #6

Post #6 by superpantoufle

Source Forum	68kMLA
Category	Peripherals
Post Date	Sun, 18 Jan 2009 - 22:14
Original URL	https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/newbie-lost-in-front-of-a-iigs.16260/

Post

Do you have a disk drive head cleaner?

Do you mean those "fake floppies" with a cleaning brush on the disk? I don't, but I've seen some a while ago. What's the best way to clean a drive otherwise?

Another possibility: since you say you can get into the Control Panel go to the Control Panel and select Slots, look at the Startup Slot setting and make sure it either says Scan or 5, which is the Slot for the 3.5 drives. If it doesn't say Scan or 5 change it with the arrow keys to one of those two settings.
The Apple IIGS expects to find 3.5 drives in Slot 5, 5.25 drives in Slot 6 and hard drive controller cards in Slot 7. There are more possibilities but the important thing is to let the computer know where to look for a disk to start up with.

The Control Panl is set to Scan. And the IIgs obviously scans its drives, since the LED on them blinks and then ejects. And thanks for those interesting bits of information that I didn't know!

Not all ProDOS disks are bootable. Even if formatted correctly, unless they have files named PRODOS and BASIC.SYSTEM on them, they won't get past the "not a startup disk" screen. Mount a few in the mac and see if any have those files. If so, try to boot them in the IIgs. If _that_ doesn't work - then the IIgs drives must be dirty or otherwise failing.

That's indeed interesting. Thanks! Actually I assumed not all disks were bootable, but I didn't know those file names. But I don't get a "not a startup disk" screen, only a "check startup device", when I insert a disk and when I don't.

Ok, so it seems my best bet is to try and clean the drives, right? Is there any easy way to do this? I already tried to take them apart, but having the plastic case off don't make it easier to reach inside.

Thanks to all for your support!

And btw, another question: I see what looks like a SCSI card inside the IIgs. Assuming it's true, could I boot from a SCSI drive? Like could I format one of my old drives in ProDOS and simply hook it to the IIgs?