Re: Floppy Interfaces

[Bryan Villados <news001@nospam_macgeek.org>]

In article <39C0608E.1D7C4D78@wanadoo.nl>, ruud.dingemans
<ruud.dingemans@wanadoo.nl> wrote:

> >    Had to contribute my two cents. I have seen a 'newer' Mac successfully
> > operate a 5.25" Apple ][ diskette drive. A local library had a Mac ][cx
> > with a 5.25" drive attached to it. I used it once to 'test the theory' and
> > it
> > formatted the diskette with no problems and copied files to it, too.
> 
> ? Are you sure this wasn't the "Apple 5.25 PC Card drive" I mentioned a
> few posts ago, which looks like a II drive but
> has a PC drive controller on a Nubus card inside the Mac II?
> 
> I have a bit of a hard time believing that you can just hook up an Apple
> II 5.25 disk drive to a Mac, apart from the Mac/A2 3.5 inch drives.

I don't think it can be the Apple 5.25 PC Card Drive... I tried the
NuBus card in my IIcx awhile back, and the software didn't recognize
the card. The card only functions in a Macintosh II (not a IIx, IIfx,
IIcx, etc.), per Apple's TIL.

Also, the diskette doesn't actually mount on the desktop under Mac OS
like it does under GS/OS. Instead, you run a pre-PC Exchange utility
called "File Exchange" that shipped with System Software prior to
System 7.1. The software looks exactly like the old Font/DA Mover
utility. And it's that utility you use to format, copy, and delete from
the 5.25" drive. Unfortunately, File Exchange didn't read ProDOS or DOS
3.3 diskettes. So what John Maxwell saw must have been some kind of a
hack.

---
Bryan G Villados
Curator, Apple Museum-for-a-Day
Pearl City, Hawaii

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