Re: A2GS 1.44 " Drives

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.bc.ca>]

Getting a 1.44mb drive and plugging it into the diskport on the
back of the IIgs won't do you much good as the IIgs as it comes,
will only see it as an 800k drive. To use a 1.44mb drive you need
a controller card.
There's two ways you can do this. With an Apple II superdrive card
you can use an Apple 1.44mb drive to read Apple & Mac 1.44mb
and 800k floppies as well as PC 1.44 & 720k disks. I believe Shreve
Systems may still have a few of these for around $60. A IIgs 800k
3.5" drive can be upgraded to 1.44mb by replacing the mechanism
with a FDHD from a suitable Mac such as an SE30, Classic etc.

There's also a controller from a german company called SHH systeme.
This controller lets you use a PC floppy drive on an Apple II. The
drive'll let you use 1.44mb disks and I believe read 720k pc floppies
but it won't read Apple 800k disks. The reason for this as well as the
reason Apple drives are more expensive than PC drives is that the
Apple drive is a variable speed drive whereas the PC drive is a single
speed drive.



Paul G 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.
>
> Thanks !