• "Installing System Software on a Hard Disk" earlier in this chapter
• "Setting the SCSI Device Number" in Chapter 16
Hard disk precautions
Because the components inside a hard disk drive are very close together and
are moving very fast when the drive is switched on, these drives should be
treated with care.
Observe these precautions when working with a hard disk:
- Avoid jostling or rough handling of the drive. Never move your Macintosh
when the hard disk drive is operating.
- Always keep external drives on a sturdy, level surface.
- Operate a hard disk at temperatures between 50 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit
(between 10 and 40 degrees Celsius) and at a relative humidity of 20 to 80
percent.
- Avoid spilling any liquids on or near the drive.
- Do not expose the drive to hazardous vapors, such as those from cleaning
solvents.
Preparing and using floppy disks
The type of floppy disk used with the Macintosh consists of a hard plastic
case 3.5 inches wide that houses a flexible plastic disk (the source of the
name "floppy"). A metal shutter at one end of the case slides to one side
when the disk is in the drive, exposing the flexible plastic on which
information is stored. The plastic is coated with a magnetic layer similar to
that of recording tape.
Types and capacities of floppy disks
The amount of information a floppy disk can store depends on its physical
capacity, the type of disk drive in which it is used, and the way the disk is
initialized -- that is, the way its surface is electronically prepared to
store data.
A Macintosh floppy disk has one of three capacities:
- 400 kilobytes (K), or single-sided
- 800K, or double-sided
- 1.4 megabytes (MB), or high-density
Labeling on the disk's case or metal shutter usually indicates whether the
disk is single-sided, double-sided, or high-density (abbreviated HD).
The SuperDrive in your Macintosh is a high-density floppy disk drive that can
accept disks of all three capacities. You do not have to use 1.4 MB disks.
(This feature allows you to share disks with people who have earlier
Macintosh models that don't have SuperDrives.)
!! WARNING: If you have an 800K external disk drive -- or if you use other
To Next Page
Loading...