Doug Does wrote:
____________________
____________________
"I don't think this is accurate. During startup the Pram looks for
hard drives first before it looks for a Systems Folder. The IDE
drive on the Starmax is the default and if it is not present (or
defective) the startup process stops, no question marks, nothing.
After the hard drives are identified the startup process uses the
startup panel to select the startup System. If it can not find a
blessed System, the blinking question mark appears.
The Max must have something connected to the IDE drive port even if
it is not the Startup System."
_______________
The PRAM does not look for the hard drives first. It looks for the
startup drive selected in
Startup Disk in the Control Panel before the last shut down. If the CD
drive was selected, it
will go there first--what else is the purpose of selecting a startup
disk? I think the default
selection may very well be the floppy, but I didn't bother to check out
that technicality.
Instructionally in the ROM beneath the PRAM, it makes sense to have a
startup sequence independent of the PRAM in case the PRAM is disabled,
corrupted or underpowered by a low battery or a lack of one. This way
the owner gets a chance to do a tad of simple troubleshooting. The
blinking mac tells us the machine is ready for instructions from an OS
on some storage
device.
I'm sure the IDE drive is always selected in the control panel when the
machine leaves
their hands because that's where the factory intends and expects to have
the blessed
folder start its OS. If nothing's there, the SM looks in the next
closets. If it still doesn't find
anything, you get the blinking ?. (The blessed folder is relatively
recent, an emergency
startup floppy often can get by on a system file alone, no
finder...(?)).
In response to the though that I was inaccurate, I took a Starmax
3000/200 and
disconnected the IDE drive. There was no disk in the CD drive and no
floppy in its drive. I
started the machine from the keyboard and got the chimes almost
instantly. After 9
seconds, the monitors came up with blank screens (I have 2 on this
machine), 4 seconds
later, an empty mac and the arrow appeared, the machine searched, and
finding no drive or
instructions anywhere, displayed the blinking question mark in the small
mac icon.
If I'm not mistaken, every mac I have from the 1984 model to the
pre-G3's acts the same
way. Once the ROM sequence is established, and we're past the chimes of
death, the
PRAM searches each readable drive in a sequence I don't know or
particularly care about.
We start with that selected drive, build from its OS if there is one,
put together the
extensions, blah, blah, and that drive is shown at the top of the
desktop pile Every drive
the OS finds initialized and proper is then shown as a drive on the
desktop thereafter
whether or not it contains a blessed system. If there is a disk in the
floppy or the CD, the
OS shows them. Nothing in those drives; nothing is shown.
Stepping back to the original question, an IDE drive is not necessary to
show the screen.
Bob Wulkowicz
--
StarMax is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
/ Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \
/ <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \
Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html>
StarMax list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/starmax.html>
Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/starmax%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks!
<http://www.applelinks.com>
