> Thanks for the advise. I have tried initializing with all extensions off,
> tried it with the HD erased, (i.e. no other system software except whats on
> the boot floppy), and other forms of voodoo. Nothing works.
> I do note that the HD came with a "third party" driver installed, (get info
> says FWB ID 0, 1.7.5) and I am wondering if I would actually need their
> software to get this thing to format. Hmmm. The patched Apple 7.5.3 won't
> do it.

Sorry, I'm new, so I didn't see this. It's simple, but the solution might
not be.

When you boot, all SCSI devices get scanned; if there's a SCSI driver on
the disk, such as FWB, it gets loaded. That's why you can mount a Zip disk
if you leave it in the drive while booting.

So the solution is this: boot with the drive "off". This is a piece of
cake (or whatever saying is appropriate) on a desktop machine, since you
can just pull the power connector and boot. But on a laptop, you'd have to
boot, then plug in the drive. I don't know how complicated this would be
for your laptop, but that's all you can do.

Well, there is another option: install BSD on a Zip, then dd directly to
the block device of the hard drive, then boot and use Apple's HD SC or
Drive Setup.

Whatever is easiest. I didn't take care of a lab for 160 Macs for nothing!

John Klos