<b>UMAX and Mac OS 8: a follow-up and clarification

Regarding the report last time on Mac OS 8 incompatibility with UMAX computers: Reader replies were not all that consistent. Some confirmed getting similar statements from UMAX tech support. Others claimed that they were told simply not to let the OS 8 Installer update their hard disk driver on a IDE drive; otherwise, Mac OS 8 was fine. In that regard, a few readers reminded me to clarify that the problem does not involve the 900 series clones; UMAX told them only the 500/600 series was under investigation. Still others claimed that UMAX told them "there are no problems" at all.

For the final word on this, I turn to Jordan P. Ruderman, UMAX Product Support Engineer, who wrote me as follows:

"Regarding Mac OS 8 and UMAX C500 and C600 computers: From our preliminary investigation, the problem appears to be with the Apple Drive Setup included with OS 8. This affects Alchemy based computers only.
As a temporary solution, Drive Setup 1.2.3 (Mac OS 7.6, 7.6.1) may be used to initialize or update the drivers on a IDE drive. While running the Mac OS 8 installer, skip directly to "step 4" thereby bypassing updating the IDE driver to 1.3.
S900, S910, and J700 users should update their drives with FWB 2.0.6 before installing Mac OS 8.
The use of Mac OS 8 in no way will cause "physical damage" to the hard drive on any UMAX computer."