Re: Copying IIe disks on a IIgs

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Kevin Smith writes ...
> 
> I've never owned a IIe, so I haven't had much experience with using
> IIe programs on a IIgs.  A friend of mine recently gave me a load of
> software on 5.25 disks for a IIe, and I'd like to copy it onto my
> IIgs' harddrive.  However, the finder cannot recognize the disks and
> asks me to initialize them.  I know the disks aren't bad, because I
> can boot up from them.  How would I copy/run IIe files through the
> finder?

     Mainly, you won't. If you got a big pile of diskettes it is sure to
include a lot of II, II+, and early IIe software. Most of this will be on
diskettes using DOS 3.3, modified DOS 3.3, and special DOS 3.3 versions or
weird DOS's designed to defeat copying.

     The IIgs System 6.0.1 Finder (with the DOS 3.3 FST installed) does a poor
job of handling DOS 3.3 and assorted DOS 3.3 variants. For instance, one
popular DOS 3.3 mod in the early 1980's was a change to allow using 36 tracks.
The Finder chokes on 36-track DOS 3.3 diskettes.

     Besides, the Finder is horrendously slow in handling DOS 3.3 diskettes and
can not even create DOS 3.3 volumes. (The best way to deal with DOS 3.3
diskettes and files on the IIgs is to run Copy II Plus-- versions 7.1 through
8.3 will let you move files around, do renaming, etc..) 

     Some commercial 5.25" ProDOS diskettes also include copy protection. The
Finder won't like them, either.

     Yes; a lot of non-commercial DOS 3.3 software-- e.g. games typed in from
SoftSide, etc.-- can be modified to run under ProDOS from hard disk-- see
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2DOSMM.html#022 . Most non copy protected
ProDOS software can run from hard disk with little or no modification.

     All of which boils down to the observation that moving 5.25" software to
hard disk and running it there usually involves some experimentation and,
often, is more bother than it's worth. Hard disk (or Zip disk) is great for
archiving 5.25" diskettes-- e.g. in ShrinkIt compressed .sdk files; but, in
general, you are better off running 5.25" stuff from 5.25" diskette.


     As has been mentioned, it is easy to boot 5.25" diskettes from the Finder.
You just get to the Applesoft prompt-- like by double-clicking on BASIC.System
on your hard disk-- and type in PR#6 to boot from 5.25" Drive 1. And, if you
need to slow the program to normal speed, you go to the Control Panel-- press
OpenApple-Control-Esc together, select "Control Panel"-- and set Speed to
"Normal".

     The IIgs is a pretty good machine for running 5.25" software from 5.25"
diskette.



Rubywand