PATH Hardware Documentation > Device Managers and Drivers > ATA Devices > ATA Device Software Guide

Open Routine

The open routine is used by the ATA Manager to open the ATA driver on an ATA device. The ATA disk driver requires a physical drive ID from the ATA Manager, and is called by the ATA Manager after the driver is loaded from the drive media. An open call to the ATA disk driver returns a result of openErr if it has not been opened previously, and returns a result of noErr and does not reopen if it is already open.

The open routine can be used to get the reference number for the ATA driver. However, the OpenDriver system call, which is documented in Inside Macintosh, is the preferred method for obtaining the driver reference number for a specified driver.

When opened, the ATA disk driver initializes itself for the drive specified and registers itself with the ATA Manager. The driver installs itself in the system Unit Table and installs a system Drive Queue entry for each file system partition (volume) found on the drive media. After opening, the ATA disk driver is able to respond to all other Close, Prime, Status, and Control calls.

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