Re: Need Answers to Simple //gs Questions !

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

Marvin Miller <marvinisnot@home.com> wrote:

> Which are the proper 5.25 drives to use for this system?

The same ones you would use on an Apple IIe.  A UniDisk 5.25, Apple 5.25
Drive or Disk //c can be connected directly to the drive port, or
daisy-chained from the back of 3.5" drives.  If you want to use a Disk
][, you will need an adaptor cable to convert it to the UniDisk-style 19
pin connector.

> Can you use any size SCSI drive?

In theory, yes.  Under ProDOS-8, the practical limit is about 200 MB.
With GS/OS you should be able to deal with anything up to 4 GB, though
you are likely to have trouble filling anything that big.

The ProDOS file system must be used for the first partition (all
partitions if you are only using ProDOS-8) and ProDOS only supports 32
MB per partition.  This means that you will need to create a lot of
partitions on a large drive.

If you use GS/OS, you have the option of using one or more HFS
partitions, each of which can be up to 2 GB.  These won't be accessible
under ProDOS-8, and won't use space as efficiently as ProDOS-8 if larger
than 32 MB.

> What's the best Scsi card to put in it?

Either the RamFast (revision D) or the Apple High-Speed card.  The
original Apple card will do in a pinch, but it is significantly slower,
and only lets you access seven partitions under ProDOS-8.

> Will all the mouldy-oldy A2 programs run on it? That's the real focus
> here.

For the most part, yes.  You will probably have to set the system speed
to "Normal" for speed-critical software such as old games.  In general,
anything that runs on a IIc or enhanced IIe will probably run on the
IIgs as well.

> Do you need special floppys or can you use any new style IBM ones?

Do you mean drives or disks?

Assuming you mean disks: you should use double density 3.5" disks, not
high density ones.  It doesn't matter if they are preformatted IBM -
just reformat them on the IIgs.

> Is there a CDROM unit available for this unit? What would I be looking
> for?

With the Apple SCSI cards, you can use all features of the oldest three
Apple CD-ROM drive models (Apple CDSC, CDSC+ and CD-150).  You can also
use later Apple external models but won't be able to control their audio
features from the computer.

The situation is less clear with third party drives.  I'd expect all but
really old CD-ROM drives to work.  (Old ones tended to use proprietary
command sets, which don't work with the Apple II.)

The RamFast may support a wider variety of drives, for both audio and
data.