Re: Help! Apple IIc+ with no working diskettes

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

star_fire@hushmail.com writes ...
> 
> If you all are getting fed up with me, I completely understand!  :)
>

     As long as you avoid complaining about Piracy!, violation of holy
copyrights, and laws relating to sidewalk ownership, ...  no problem.

 
> > Using a 'Head Cleaner' disk in the built-in drive may help.
 ....

> Cleaning the drive was the first thing I tried.  I just followed your
> other suggestions outlined above and got the same error.
> 
> > Whether or not you want to try the from-scratch method outlined above,
> > at least one 5.25" drive is very nice to have (if not quite an absolute
> > necessity).  A good person to contact in order to purchase
> > a drive that will plug into your IIc+ is Steve Buggie
 ....
> 
> I dropped by Salvation Army yesterday and picked up a IIe computer
> (non-enhanced, on boot it says Apple ][ ) with two 5.25" drives, one
> says disk ][ the other says Micro-SCI, an RGB monitor and a tomato box
> full of disks,

     A "tomato box"?


> most written, 30 new, for $11.85.  (That's all I had on
> me and the lady said OK.)  My 12 year old son dropped the computer on
> the way out, a lovely crash, but it seems to work OK despite it.  At
> least I was the one carrying the monitor!

     Good thing.

> 
> I bought it with the hopes of being able to connect one of the
> drives to the IIc+ that I can't get to boot.  The box of disks has
> probably at least a dozen that are labeled ProDOS on them.
> And now do I understand you to say that I need a special drive?
> I see that both drives attatch via ribbon to a serial card on the
> motherboard.

     The Disk Controller Card is nice to have. It should be in Slot 6.


> Is there a way to adapt them to the serial port on the
> IIc+?

     It is possible to build or buy an adaptor which will let you plug this
sort of drive into the Disk Drive socket on the back of a IIc+. On the other
hand, you can get a 5.25" Apple II drive with the right kind of connector for
a IIc+ for around $25 from Steve Buggie.



> My husband wanted to remove the 3.5 drive completely and
> plug the 5.25" in its slot.

     The males in your family should probably be kept away from computers.


> I told him that it wasn't what I wanted to
> do and that I didn't know if it could hurt anything anyway.
> 
> Hmmm...maybe I should just give the IIc+ back to grandma and
> just use the IIe.  :)  At least it boots just fine!!

     An unenhanced IIe can run lots of software including some that will not
run on a //c or IIc+. Even so, a IIc+ lets you run bunches of programs for
"128k or larger" Apple II's; and, it can run programs at a higher speed.
Since the IIc+ has a nice built-in serial port and can save files on 800k
3.5" disks, it is still your best bet for communicating with a PC and getting
Apple II software you download from the net.



Rubywand