With these patches and tips, you'll never need an unreliable,
inconvenient third-party hard disk driver again.
Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup are the standard tools that
everyone has used to prepare vintage Macintosh hard drives. They're
not as glamorous as FWB Hard Disk Toolkit or SoftRAID, but they're dependable
day-in and day-out computing companions.
Their biggest limitation is that they are only compatible with a
drive that came stock in a Mac.
Since we often upgrade our vintage Macs with more modern hard
drives, we've been forced to use third-party hard disk drivers.
This is inconvenient (and may even be technically illegal). Also,
while many have had good luck with third-party hard disk drivers,
they've been a source of heartache for me.
Wouldn't it be great it we could just use the appropriate Apple
tool with any hard drive?
With these patches, it is possible - and it works great!
Introducing the Tools
Apple HD SC Setup (named for the first external SCSI hard drive
for Macs, Apple's 20-megabyte HD SC) is the venerable old standby.
When Macs started coming with internal hard drives, its audience
broadened, but its name never changed.
Drive Setup arose with the introduction of the Power Macs in
1994. When the LC 630 shipped a
few months later, its IDE hard disk was also to be formatted with
Drive Setup. Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup coexisted until
Mac OS 7.6, which dropped the
older program.
Two versions of Drive Setup are of current interest: 1.5 and
1.7.3. There are a few versions of Drive Setup newer than 1.7.3,
but they are not available for download, so we won't worry about
them. Drive Setup 1.7.3 does a fine enough job all the way up to
Mac OS 9.2.2.
Choosing Your Formatter
The best tool to use depends upon your Macintosh situation.
For all Macs running "old" System Software from 6.0.1 through
7.1.1, I recommend Apple HD SC Setup. It is broadly compatible with
these older System releases and is the tool they were designed to
work with.
When I updated from HD SC Setup to Drive
Setup on my SE/30, my hard drive performance doubled!
For 68030 and 68040 Macs (like Mac
II and Quadra models) running
newer Systems from 7.5 up to 8.1, I recommend using Drive Setup
1.5. Using Drive Setup instead of HD SC Setup can increase speed
under System 7.5, and it's required for 7.6, 8.0, and 8.1. When I
updated from HD SC Setup to Drive Setup on my SE/30, my hard drive performance
doubled!
This version avoids a couple of nasty bugs present on 680x0 Macs
in Drive Setup 1.6 and higher. See Joerg Erdei's
Drive Setup FAQ for more information on why version 1.5 is the
best Drive Setup for 680x0 Macs.
For Power Macs, I recommend Drive Setup 1.7.3 regardless of
System software version. This latest downloadable version is
compatible back to System 7.1.2 on the NuBus Power Macs and up to
9.2.2 on the last Classic-booting eMacs.
HD SC Setup
HD SC Setup is easy to download and patch. Grab the latest
version (7.5.3) of the program from Apple (link at end of article).
Next, download this
patch. It will unstuff into a simple application that updates
your copy of HD SC Setup to work on any drive.
Now you can format any extra hard drives by hooking them up to
your Mac or copy the patched version onto your boot disks. Enjoy
your newfound freedom to use Apple's HD SC Setup with any SCSI
drive!
Drive Setup
Patching Drive Setup is also a simple two-step process. Choose
the appropriate version of Drive Setup and download it (links at
end of article). Make sure to grab the right patch, too: version 1.5 or version 1.7.3. Unpack the program and
the patch, launch the patcher, and follow the directions.
When you're done, you'll have a new copy of Drive Setup that
identifies itself as having been patched. Launch this application
or copy it to your boot disks and enjoy genuine Apple drivers on
any hard drive!
Driven by Simplicity
As you can see, it's easy to use Apple's hard disk tools with
any drive you might have. You'll gain the familiarity of the old
standby tools and can forget all the hassles of discontinued,
hard-to-find commercial software.
Next time you need to format a hard disk connected to a vintage
Macintosh, consider using HD SC Setup or Drive Setup in their
patched incarnations. I think you'll like the experience. 
Download Links
