Re: Apple IIc external 3.5 drive????????????????

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Megatron <megatron@nospamtelusplanet.net> wrote:

> Got a guy here having problems with his external 3.5 disk drive in
> appleworks.

You are sure this is a 3.5" drive (and not a 5.25" drive)?  The built-in
drive in the IIc is 5.25", and the machine supports one external 5.25"
drive.  It is possible to use an external 3.5" drive on the IIc, but not
with the original firmware release.

To find out whether a 3.5" drive is able to be used, you need to get
into Applesoft BASIC: boot a standard ProDOS system disk, or remove all
disks, reboot the machine, and you should end up in BASIC when the
machine says "Check disk drive" (or whatever the precise message is).

Once you get into BASIC (a square-bracket prompt character), type in:

PRINT PEEK(64447)

and press RETURN.  The machine should display a number.

If it says 255, then you have the original ROM version, and a 3.5" drive
is not supported, unless you upgrade the ROM (which requires a minor
modification to the motherboard).

If it says 0, 3 or 4 then the machine can support a 3.5" drive.

(If it says 5, then it is actually an Apple IIc+, but I'll assume that
isn't the case here.)

The second part of the equation is the 3.5" drive.  The Apple IIc only
supports one type of 3.5" drive: it is called a UniDisk 3.5.  This name
should be printed on the label on the underside of the drive.

> I myself have never used an apple (don't hate me).

All is forgiven.  :-)

> Can you shed some light on the configuration? it's hooked up but when
> asked to use "disk 2" it always comes back with "unable to access drive"
> or "getting errors reading drive"

Assuming this is a 3.5" drive, then this is understandable.  The "Drive
2" in AppleWorks refers to the second 5.25" drive (the external one in
the case of the IIc).  A 3.5" drive on a IIc appears to be in slot 5,
drive 1, and should be displayed as a separate item in the list of
drives.  (The 5.25" drives appear to be in slot 6.)

> and the light won't even blink, but in prodos using "b" or
> "IIc" the light comes on drive spins but it still has errors.

I don't know what the "b" and "IIc" references mean.  You'll have to
explain what you are trying to do here, and what software you are using.
(ProDOS is the operating system, not a particular application program.)

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand