Re: 1.44 wish

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

<noone@nowhere.net> wrote:

> I have seen several.  They are 20M Floptical drives that also read the
> 1.44 media.  I think you need a ramfast SCSI though as it is the only
> one that supports removable media.

If you are running GS/OS, both of Apple's SCSI cards will work with
removable media in a nominal "hard drive".

Under ProDOS-8, Apple's original SCSI card cannot handle removable media
(it won't realise you've switched media unless you reboot), but the
high-speed SCSI card will work.

I used an Apple High-speed SCSI card with a SyQuest SQ-44 mechanism
without problems (apart from the reliability of the SyQuest).

Both cards also support CD-ROM drives (which have removable media by
definition, but it isn't writable).  You need revision C firmware in the
case of the original Apple card.

There might be different issues with a Floptical drive: if it appears as
a custom SCSI device (rather than a "hard drive") then Apple's drivers
won't access it (and this means it would be unusable under ProDOS-8).

If it looks like a removable hard drive, then it should work for both 20
MB and 1.44 MB disks.  You wouldn't get very far trying to partition a
1.44 MB floppy, but you could try. :-)

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz