◊ Do you like this little hack? Send a nice postcard to:
Valentina Pavia
Via Mancini 19
10131 Torino
Italy
(don’t forget to put your name and address on it, so I can add you to my registered users’ database).
• Instructions
◊ Set Startup is an alternative to Apple’s standard “Startup Device” control panel. Its main advantage is that you can change your startup disk even if the new one is not currently mounted on the desktop. The disk is chosen by SCSI ID, where SCSI 0 usually represents your Mac’s internal hard disk.
◊ The “RAM disk/high SCSI” button will make your Mac boot from its RAM disk if there’s a bootable system on it; otherwise, it will pick the highest SCSI device that does have one.
◊ PowerBook hint: if you boot from the RAM disk and unmount your hard disk by dragging it to the trash, the disk will never spin up again and you’ll save some battery (everything you need should be inside the RAM disk, of course). You can then use Set Startup to reset the startup disk to SCSI 0, and you’ll be back to the usual startup disk at next restart (this saves you one restart, because Apple’s Startup Device control panel won’t display your hard disk if it’s not mounted).
• Version history
◊ 1.2 - Recompiled with latest version of the compiler and updated documentation
◊ 1.1 - Fixed dialog and docs, first public release