Re: 2E - 3.5" drive question

[John Townsend <utownje@lexis-nexis.com>]

Mark Percival wrote:

> As far as I can tell there were two different high density 3.5 drives
> produced by Apple that worked on the Apple II series.
>
> First is the Apple FDHD that appears identical to the Apple 3.5 Drive
> except that it has the letters "FDHD" printed on the front of the
> drive to the right of the Apple logo.  On the bottom it says "Apple
> FDHD", carrier the G7287 family tag and has a 1988 copyright date.
> This drive has a red "in use" light identical to the Apple 3.5 Drive.
>
> I assume that this was originally intended for the Macs of the day
> since there wasn't a high density Apple II 3.5 controller card until
> 1991.
>
> Second is the Apple SuperDrive that is basically the Apple FDHD
> renamed.  Gone is the "FDHD" lettering on the front of the drive.  On
> the bottom it now says "Apple SuperDrive" but still has the G7287
> family tag.  This one has a 1991 copyright date and an amber "in use"
> light.

I have one drive of yet another variation:  the label on the bottom calls
it a "3.5 DrivePlus" but it still has the G7287 model number.  I also have
the "FDHD" and "SuperDrive" varieties.  All three variations work the same
and have identical mechanisms.  In fact, I think that all of my drives have
yellow LEDs, but I don't have them in front of me at the moment.  My
suspicion is that Apple's marketers just had a hard time making up their
minds what to call the thing.

--
John E. Townsend
Sr. Software Engineer          "Machines should work;
LEXIS-NEXIS                     people should think."
Dayton, OH, USA                        -- IBM Polyanna Principle
utownje@lexis-nexis.com