Re: A2GS 1.44 " Drives

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Paul G <gavp@gis.net> wrote:

>Hello, recently I was looking into buying a 1.44" floppy drive for my
>A2GS.  I was shocked by the prices at www.allelec.com.   $50 ??  This's
>some kind of a joke aint it.  Comparing PC floppy drives that go @
>$15-30.   I'm just wondering is there any way I can "upgrade" my old
>800k drive to 1.44 (physically) ?  Or is it possible to rewire a PC
>1.44" drive to work with GS ?  My friend has done something like that
>with his old Commodore 128 lately when his original drive broke.

I'm afraid the price of the drive is not the problem.  Any
1.44MB drive on a IIGS is going to require a card.  The
card will costs you at least $50 itself because it is rare.
There are two types of cards.  One lets you run Mac
1.44MB drives, such as the Alltech $50 one.  The other
lets you run PC 1.44MB drives which are cheaper but
the catch is that you have to order the PC controller
for the IIGS from Germany which will wind up costing
more.

I would recommend skipping 1.44MB and going with the
special IIGS 1.6MB high density.  Not only does this
format store more, but it does not require an extra card.
Just look around online for a used Applied Engineering
High Density drive for the IIGS.  It comes with a special
driver that will store 2x the standard 800k disk = 1.6MB.

Should run you maybe $15 used.

It would be nicer to get a Focus hard drive for the IIGS,
though.  1.44MB or 1.6MB is really not enough not to
mention slower compared to a hard drive.