Re: problems with disk drive

[Paul Guertin <pg@sff.net>]

ludo <ldrolez@usa.net> wrote:

> 1- I cannot boot with the floppy disk extension plugged in:
> 
>    The dd's led is on, and I get no prompt... Must I insert a floppy ?
>    Can I prevent the A2 to boot on the floppy ?

Either insert a bootable floppy, or push ctrl-reset to stop the
drive and start the Basic interpreter without a DOS. The only
way to prevent the Apple from booting the floppy is to remove
the drive controller card.
 
> 2- The boot screen shows 'Apple <section><degree>' instead of 'Apple ][' ?
>     A problem with my video card ?

It's almost certainly a custom character set. There might be a
switch on the bottom of the case (under the keyboard) that selects
the character set in use. If not, you'll have to live with it or
replace the character set ROM.

> 3- I do not have DOS disks 
>    How can I recreate them ? (using dos/windows or linux)

You cannot write Apple II disks in standard PC drives. The low-level
format is different. The best way to get DOS disks and basic utilities
is to ask someone for a copy.

Paul Guertin
pg@sff.net