Requirements for A/UX

[Dave Wells]

In article <1989Nov9.160558.193 at terminator.cc.umich.edu> mike at shogun.us.cc.umich.edu () writes:
>I have a IIcx with 5 megabytes of RAM and a 100M drive.  I'm interested
>in purchasing A/UX and installing it on an external drive.  I have heard
>that installing A/UX on a non-Apple drive is difficult to impossible.
>Is this really the case?  Am I better off buying A/UX installed on an
>Apple 80M?  Also, what tape drives are supported under A/UX?
>
>I know this question comes up frequently and I would appreciate any
>help you could give me.

A/UX can be installed on _most_ any hard drive out there, so long as the
capacity is sufficient (around 80MB for a normal installation).  What makes
it difficult, or easy, is the amount of support you get from the drive
vendor.  Do they support Apple's partitioning scheme?  Do they provide a
partitioning program that can create A/UX partitions along side the MacOS
partition?  You need to check with the vendors and get a commitment.
If you already have the drive you want to use for A/UX, check with the
manufacturer to see if they have updated software.

Worst case, you can use A/UX's formatting and partitioning utilities to set
most drives up for A/UX exclusively - no MacOS.  This isn't great, but if
works.  You don't have to worry about a driver because A/UX uses its own -
even for the Apple drives.

The final word: Check with the drive vendor to see if they have
A/UX compatible drives, and what to they consider compatible.  Many
companies that sell hard drives are now aware of the A/UX market, and 
many have done the work required for A/UX compatibility.

-Dave

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  Dave (Gimme more MHz) Wells, Apple Computer, Inc.  MS: 37-Y  (408) 974-5515
          Mail: dwells at apple.com or AppleLink d.wells or GEnie D.WELLS
 These opinions may be nothing more than the ramblings of a fatigued tinkerer
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