The PC hard drive is very flexible. It can be a "Drive Container," which is a large file that exists on a Macintosh partition or server; it can be a physical DOS partition on a SCSI device created with a third party utility; or it can be a SCSI DOS medium (such as a hard disk, SyQuest, etc.).
Creating a Drive Container
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To create a drive container, use the PC Setup Control Panel.
1) Select either the C or D drive icon
2) Select New drive file from the menu
3) Select the location for the drive container
4) Name the drive container
5) Check the Initialize Drive File box
Using a DOS Partition
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To use a DOS partition, it is necessary to have a SCSI drive attached that has a DOS partition on it. Some Macintosh hard disk formatting programs allow the creation of MS-DOS partitions. You can also use an existing MS-DOS formatted SCSI drive.
Once you connect the hard disk:
1) Open the PC Setup Control Panel
2) Select the appropriate drive letter
3) Select Drive Container
4) Select the appropriate drive from the list of available choices
If the partition is new or the drive has not been used by MS-DOS before, it is necessary to use the DOS FDISK command to create the DOS partitioning information for that drive. After using FDISK, you need to format the drive using the MS-DOS FORMAT command.
This article appeared in the 6 May 1996 issue of Information Alley.
Article Change History:
06 May 1996 - Reviewed for technical accuracy.
05 May 1994 - Removed references to Houdini
25 May 1994 - Added information on creating a disk container and hard disk
partitions.