Re: Apple PC 5.25...again

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Labelas Enoreth writes ...

earlier

>>

Hiya. Just wondering, I know that on the mac end, the Apple PC 5.25
external drive required either a NuBus (for Mac II series) or PDS (for
SE)
card to drive it. No idea if it had any software it needed. But that's
not
relevant. What I'm wondering is, would one work on a IIgs without any
addition HW via the SmartPort, or...is it not compatible at all? And
anyone have an extra one laying around? They seem to be sort of not easy
to find, at least where I am.
Before I post, let me clarify this just in case anyone doesn't know what
I
am talking about. The drive I am referring is the drive made by Apple,
and
external, but designed to read MS-DOS 180k and 360k 5.25 disks. Maybe
others, (720k...perhaps) don't remember...Don't even know how you
interacted with it on a mac, as I have yet to get my hands on an actual
drive...and have never seen anything in the way of software for it.
Guessing you either went through AFE or perhaps there was an
extension...maybe.

<<
 ....

and ...

> 
> The rerason I asked about this was because mainly, I found someone who had
> one and insisted it connected _directly_ to their IIgs. Not that they
> would sell it to me of course, and they didn't really 'know anything about
> apples'.
> This is on eBay, of course. Anyway, I was really skeptical since, yes, the
> drive would only connect as far as I knew to the SE or Mac II card.
> But...I never actually went and looked at the plug so it could've either
> been the same as the other external drives or had a small cable (like the
> LC IIe card did) to adapt it. Either way, I was just checking, because,
> for all I knew the MS-DOS FST could read them under GS/OS...or not.
> Anyway, still hopelessly looking for that stupid drive for myself.


     You say "The drive I am referring is the drive made by Apple, and
external, but designed to read MS-DOS 180k and 360k 5.25 disks. Maybe
others, (720k...perhaps)".  You could contact the seller at the email
address which will be listed in the Ebay ad-- except that, if the guy
said "Sure, it plugs right into the GS disk port and works fine", I
would still not expect the thing to work. The drive interface hardware
required to read MS-DOS 5.25" diskettes is different from that required
to read Apple II 5.25" diskettes.

     If what you are looking for is a good 5.25" drive for a IIgs (or
IIe or other Apple II), why not contact Steve Buggie at (505) 863-2390
(home);   863-7504 (office) and tell him what you need. He charges
around $25 per drive.



Rubywand