Drew answered my question: >> Why can't I boot from the 8.5 disk tools floppy (as described in previous >> post?) and partition, install, augment, from there?
most reassuringly: > Oops, I'm sorry to imply that you can't. Boot from the floppy, reformat, drag > the Disk Tools system > folder to the HD (it will complain about not being a valid system > folder for booting from a hard drive), augment it with networking > extensions, and you are home free. Which I assume and devoutly hope means that after registering whatever complaints it chooses the 5300 will indeed boot with that teeny system from the HD. If not, please somebody tell me before I wind up waist deep in the big muddy. > But what I believe you are thinking of is not re-formatting the > partition but optimizing or defragmenting it. You _can_ do that to > individual partitions without trouble. DiskWarrior does this > excellently. Yes, that's what I meant (thanks for interpreting). Norton should do it. > Have you considered just backing down to > OS 8.1 for the lesser RAM requirements? Don't have it, and gotta hunch I *do* have some applications that want 8.5. > As for a standard way to reformat w/o a CD, I'd say that there isn't > one. Very few Macs shipped without CD-ROMs that couldn't also be > booted from a System 7.5 floppy disk. Duo 2300, PB 190, and PB 1400 > are about the only ones. Previously, the standard was to boot off > the Utilities floppy that came with the computer (Is that right? > It's been so long since I used System 7....) and use a tool like HD > SC Setup. It sounds like this group of PBs fell neatly between a rock and a hard place. And that certainly was the system 7 SOP. Installing by means of a fistfull of floppies took a week or so, but was at least reliable since as long as the floppy drive functioned there was always a way to boot up and go on from there. > I'd seriously suggest investing in a SCSI adapter and a SCSI Disk > Mode (SDM) cable so you can do SDM or use an external CD or HD when > you have to. Intending to, & would have done so long since if I actually had an external CD or HD. > Here's a question for VM/disk drive gurus: If you decrease the > minimum block size from 4K to .5K under HFS+, will this speed up VM? > When VM reads from a drive, it reads a whole block at once. If the > blocks are smaller, will this speed it up? Well, gurus? There are probably more than the two of us curious. Dan? You started this thread. Best, Victoria -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; 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/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
