CASA BLANCA WORKS RELEASES DRIVE7 v2.3

Drive7 v2.3 with Drive7Rem is the Most Versatile Support Available

September 19, 1992 -- Casa Blanca Works, Inc., of Greenbrae, CA has
released version 2.3 of Drive7, the popular universal hard drive
formatting software. Testing reveals it to be among the fastest and most
reliable way for Macintosh users to upgrade their hard drives and
removable devices for Apple's System 7.  Version 2.3 ships with two
startup disks; one with System 6.0.8 and one with System 7.0.1. This
allows all Macintosh users to easily use the formatter. 

Using Drive7, owners of many third party hard drives are able to update
their driver partition making them fully System 7 compatible.  Drive7
conforms closely to Apple's guidelines allowing dependable upgrades to be
made for future Apple systems and has been successfully tested on new 040
Macs and with 7.0.1.

Features of Drive7 v2.3 include the ability to update over a twenty
third-party drivers without having to initialize or reformat them. Drive7
formats any hard drive that conforms to Apple's current SCSI guidelines
(Quantum, Micropolis, Conner, Fujitsu, Maxtor, Seagate, Rodime and
others).  It formats and updates "sleep" modes for the CPU and hard drive
on the Macintosh Powerbooks and Quantum Go40, 80, and 120 drives.

In addition, Drive7 can format removable cartridge and magneto optical
drives including Syquest, 45 and 90 Bernoullis, InSite, Sony, Epson,
Olympus, Panasonic, and Ricoh optical drives. Multiple Syquest and optical
cartridges can be formatted in one session, saving initialization time on
the desktop.

Included  with the program is Drive7rem, a powerful universal removable
device CDEV. From within the CDEV, users can set their hard drive
partition attributes, including passwords, automounting, locking, and boot
partition. The CDEV supports data and sound on Apple, Toshiba , NEC and
DEC CD ROM-drives, SyQuest 44 and 88MB systems, Iomega Bernoulli 45 and
90MB systems,  Ricoh and Sony 5.25" optical drives and Sony, Ricoh,
Olympus, Panasonic and Epson 3.5" (120MB) optical drives. 

Drive7Rem allows the user to automatically mount a cartridge on the desktop
formatted with virtually any program. This is especially useful in a
mixed-vendor environment (such as a service bureau) that receives
cartridges formatted by any number of formatters and where the operator
attempts to mount them with a different driver. It efficiently solves most
potential init conflicts as it replaces multiple drivers in the system
folder, making it one of the strongest utilities to support removable
devices. Another outstanding feature is a command that allows users to
designate a Syquest, Bernoulli, or Optical cartridge non-ejectable for use
as as virtual memory under System 7.

The free upgrade will be mailed in the next two weeks to all U. S.
registered users,. Version 2.3 of Drive7 with Drive7rem is available from
Casa Blanca Works at the affordable price of $79.95.  Additional
information can be obtained by telephoning Casa Blanca Works at
415-461-2227 or faxing 415-461-2249.  

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Notes About Drive7:

We are Casa Blanca Works, Inc., the publishers of Drive7, DriveShare and
The Blue Parrot. 

With the advent of System 7, we realized there would be a need for a
formatter that could update most third party drivers. There are a lot of
installations that have a mixed driver environment. Many suppliers were
very slow to come out with a fully 7.0-compatible (virtual memory and
32-bit addressing) driver. We wanted to provide users with one affordable
product that will do that for most, if not all, of their drives. Using
Drive7 also gives them a solid, single upgrade path for future Apple
systems. Drive7, released in July, 1991, was the first fully-compatible
universal commercial formatter released for System 7.

Many drivers (and some drives) just plain do not conform to Apples SCSI
guidelines. Drive7 was designed to follow Apples guidelines as closely as
possible. We have written special code to make allowances for some third
party formatters and drives, thereby allowing Updating (vs. reformatting)
many drives that are borderline. For those drivers that are close, but not
fully in compliance with Apples specs, Drive7 allows an Update (with a
warning), without partitioning features. Drive7 intelligently figures out
this for the User. If it is doable, the Update button is available; if
not, the button is greyed out. 

Apples SCSI Manager guidelines suggest a driver partition of 16k minimum
size. Planning for improvements/requirements, Drive7 allocates a 32k
driver partition, as well as a separate, independent entry partition. Most
other good formatters still allocate only a 16k partition, and no others
have the special entry partition.  

(Some) Drive7 Features:

1.  Cost: Suggested retail price is only $79.95. The first affordable
universal formatter. Site licenses are available.

2.  Drive7 intelligent driver updates over twenty third-party drivers,
including those by Apple, Mirror, Micronet, PLI, Disk Manager, CRU,
Alliance, Total Peripherals, DataCase, Spot-On, Storage Technologies, TPI,
FWB Toolkit and Personal Edition, Appollyonics, CMS, SilverLining, STI,
Storage Dimensions, Cutting Edge, and others. Drive7 can take over any of
those drivers, allowing Users to update without initializing or
formatting. We know of no other formatter that provides the universality
of Drive7, especially at such an affordable price.

3.  Drive7 will format any drive that conforms to Apples current SCSI
guidelines. These include Quantum, Micropolis, Conner, Fujitsu, Maxtor,
Seagate, and others. Also includes exclusive authorized support for
SuperMac DataFrame and LaserFrame drives, allowing users to simply update
in most cases. 

4.  Drive7 allows you to format and initialize for Mac as well as A/UX
partitioning. You have a number of choices for partitions, and Drive7 also
learns the existing partition scheme on your drive, remembers it, and adds
it to the list of choices.

5.  Partitioning features include Mount/AutoMount, Lock/Unlock, and
Password Protection. Most of these are controlled thru the application as
well as thru the Drive7rem CDEV.

6.  Drive7 has an extremely simple and intuitive interface. Four buttons on
the main window. Four more on the extended features panel. The intent in
this design was to make it as easy for the user as possible, and not to
confuse them with features most dont need, use, or understand.  

7.  Drive7s driver automatically writes out bad blocks. Because all Macs
from the SE on include hardware handshaking in the Mac ROMs, Drive7 does
blind writes automatically on those Macs. On the MacPlus, Drive7s special
code does polled writes automatically. 

8.  Another special feature: A choice of 40 different hard drive icons.
Plus, you can import any icon you want vis ResEdit. And under System 7,
you can copy and paste icons. In addition to the multiple icon choices,
Drive7 allows you to optionally place the SCSI ID number (with the choice
of two font sizes) on the icon.

9.  Unlike some other formatters, you can format multiple removable
cartridges in one session.

10. Drive7 also includes a removeable INIT that will recognize virtually
any formatted Syquest , Bernoulli, optical cartridge as well as Apple,
DEC, NEC and Toshiba CDROMs. You need not reformat or update the cartridge
for it to mount. This is a special advantage for users like service
bureaus that receive cartridges from a variety of sources. 

11. You can designate a Syquest, Bernoulli, and optical cartridge as
virtual memory under Drive7. 

Recommended configuration: Mac Plus or later.

Special Features of Drive7 v2.3 September 11, 1992

New Features of Version 2.3 include the following: 

-- Exclusive authorized support for SuperMac DataFrame and
   LaserFrame drives. 
-- Support for MOST, Panasonic and Olympus 3.5" MO Drives.
-- Multiple Partitions on Removable Devices. 
-- Speed Improvements. 
-- NEC CD-ROM Sound Support. 
-- Copy and Paste Partition Creation/Sizing. 
-- Odd and Even Numbers of Partitions. 
-- Auto Stop Time. 
-- Software SCSI ID selection on SuperMac and Quantum drives. 
-- Custom MacPlus Performance Driver. 
-- New Icons.
-- Compatibility with Brainstorm, Total Systems Gemini Ultra 
   and Fusion Data Systems TokaMac accelerator boards.

* SuperMac DataFrame and LaserFrame drives Casa Blanca Works is proud to
have been chosen by SuperMac to support their estimated 200,000 DataFrame
and LaserFrame drive owners. Until now, there has never been support for
updating these devices by any commercial formatter on the market.  Using
Drive7 on your DataFrame or LaserFrame drive is no different than updating
any other mechanism. 

* MOST, Panasonic and Olympus 3.5" MO Drives. Version 2.2 introduced
support for Ricoh, Sony and Epson Magneto-Optical drives. Version 2.3 now
introduces support for MOST, Panasonic and Olympus 3.5" MO Drives. Using
our CDEV, Drive7rem, you have full support for these mechanisms including
the ability to format a cartridge on the desktop level using erase disk
from the Special menu. You may also use Command-Y (Put Away) to fully
eject any cartridge.

* Multiple partitions on removable devices. Removable devices such as
SyQuest, Insite Floptical and Magneto-Optical drives can now be formatted
with multiple partitions. You may also use the Drive7rem CDEV to change
any partition attribute without returning to the Drive7 application.

* Speed Improvements. We have made significant improvements to the speed of
Drive7s drivers and recommend you update your mechanisms to take full
advantage of this performance upgrade. Updating is described on page 11 of
your owners manual.

* NEC CD-ROM Sound Support. The release version of v2.3 includes sound
support for NEC CD-ROMs.  It also supports sound and data on the Apple
CD-SC, CD-150, and the Toshiba 3301 CD-ROMs.  

* Copy and Paste Partitions. You may create a custom number of partitions
using the Copy and Paste functions built into the Macintosh operating
system.

* Odd and Even numbered Partitions. Earlier versions of Drive7 only offered
even numbers of partitions to select from (2, 4 etc.). Version 2.3
includes both odd and even numbers to choose from. Furthermore, any number
of partitions may be created using Copy and Paste (see above).

* Auto Stop Time. Designed mainly for servers, a new feature in Drive7 is
Auto Stop Time, which lets you designate a length of inactivity before
your drive spins down. Auto Stop Time works just like the sleep mode on
Apple Powerbooks, but instead of saving battery power, it saves wear on
the hard drive. Any ADB (Apple desktop bus), mouse or keyboard activity
wakes up your drive.

* Software SCSI ID selection on SuperMac and Quantum drives. Special code
has been implemented to allow for changing the SCSI ID via software on
mechanisms that support it. These include the SuperMac DataFrame and
LaserFrame drives as well as most Quantum Drives. If the mechanism
supports this feature, Drive7 adds a Set ID button on the main window when
the drive is selected.

* MacPlus Performance Driver. This performance driver option installs a
specially tuned driver for the Macintosh Plus. We recommend updating your
drive to take full advantage of this highly effective new driver. Because
of the Mac Plus ROM chips, we are unable to offer support for password
protection and other options on the Mac Plus. 

* New Icons Drive7 now includes 40 different icons to choose from with
optional SCSI ID numbers included right on the front. 

* Total Systems-Gemini Ultra and Fusion Data Systems-TokaMac accelerator
boards. Owners of Total Systems-Gemini Ultra and Fusion Data
Systems-TokaMac accelerator boards now have full support for their systems
with version 2.3. Version 2.2 included support for Brainstorm
accelerators.

CASA BLANCA WORKS, INC. 
148 Bon Air Center 
Greenbrae, CA 94904 
415-461-2227    
Fax 415-461-2249 
AppleLink, AOL: CBWorks    
Compuserve: 73750,1317    
Internet: CBWorks@aol.com

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