Re: Profile HD- What is necessary to make it work w/ the II's

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Randy Shackelford <shack@onyx.southwind.net> wrote:

>Supertimer <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:
>
>:>Profiles are useful on ancient boxes which can't use anything else. HS SCSI
>:>cards aren't overly plentiful any more either so I wouldn't consider using
one
>:>in a III. So that's a non issue in addition to being a goofy idea to convert
>:>an Apple III's Profile to SCSI then have to put a SCSI card in the III to
use
>:>the drive if you ask me.
>
>: Since you already have Profile cards, of course it seems silly to you.
>: However, Profile cards are a hell of a lot more rare than High Speed
>: SCSI cards.
>
>Apple III Profile cards aren't nearly as rare as the Apple II kind. I'd say
>you have about even odds of getting one in any Apple III you run across.
>It would be a waste of a HS SCSI to use it in a III I think, since people
>have these mainly for gee whiz value these days. 

You have a point.  However, the question on the subject line
refers to the Apple II.  As an Apple II user, it would be easier
to convert the drive.  Steve Buggie is not asking too much for
the service.

>:>As someone else pointed out, regular ol' SCSI enclosures are cheap and
>:>plentiful so there's no need to ruin a not-so-plentiful Profile to make one.
>
>: The low level formatting on the Profile mechs do not last forever.
>: You can't low level format without special hardware setup.  For
>: what it is worth FOR AN APPLE II USER, it seems better to
>: convert.
>
>I have a Profile analog board with the piggyback chip on it, along with
>my IIIs. I bet these are in a good deal of Profiles out there. I just need
>the software for the III and I can do low level formats. The board came from
>a Profile which Steve B converted over. He also set me up with an Apple II
>Profile card.

If you have a Profile w/format chip, that's a completely different
story.  Think of the Apple II user above, however, who has to
find BOTH an Apple II Profile card (with IIGS ROM at that) AND
an Apple II AND a piggyback chip AND formatting software.  At
some point, it just makes more sense to convert.

>: If you own some Lisas, that's a different story.
>
>Bingo. I have a non functional Lisa 2 whose internal hard disk is broken.
>Fixing it has been on the back burner for a long time since parts for those
>relics are hard to come by. Plus I have a functioning XL with working internal
>hard disk.
>
>:>: I wouldn't call it "gutting" a Profile.  More like a transplant.  ;-)
>:>
>:>I'll keep mine as is.
>
>: Well, sure, but if I had some non-functioning Profiles in my
>: attic, I'd rather put them to use via conversion.  They are
>: not going to be of any use for Lisa units anymore, right?
>
>See above. I have plenty of uses for Profiles which work as is.
>
>Here's a question: as one of the more militant Apple II users here, suppose
>some Mac type told you that the only use for Apple IIs was to gut them and
>use the cases as hard disk enclosures. Even more so, suppose this person
>said that his favorite kind was original ][s, which of course aren't all
>that plentiful. How would that grab ya? Same logic applies, an original ][
>would only be useful to a Mac type as a hard disk enclosure, but it's worth
>much more than that to an Apple II fan. The guy could sell the ][ and take
>the $ and get a real nice enclosure.

I think you read me wrong, Randy.  I don't have much feeling
for the original Apple II.  Now if it was a working Apple IIGS or
a working Apple IIc Plus that he was messing with, I would
probably feel what a waste.  I don't think I'd have much use for
an original Apple II, no matter how rare.  On the flip side, the
Apple IIe is one of the more capable Apple IIs, so even though
it is the most plentiful, I hate to see one destroyed.  ;-)

If the Mac user is tired of that SCSI drive in an Apple II case,
I'd take it and use it for the IIGS!

>I like it myself about as much as I liked hearing about all the original Macs
>which got turned into fish tanks when I was looking for a case to replace the
>one which got busted up in shipping when I got my original Mac. That made it 
>a little hard to find one but luckily I did turn one up in great shape. My 
>opinion is there are too many fish tanks and hard disk enclosures out there 
>to use old hard to find Apple stuff for those purposes.

I like to hack, I admit it.  I am less of a computer collector than
a "let's see what I can do with this hardware" person.  I would
LOVE to have an original Mac fish tank.  In fact, I have an
AppleColor RGB monitor right now which I am getting ready
to try to fix.  If I can't fix it, I wouldn't mind turning IT into a
fish tank.  ;-)

I've also hacked out an Apple IIGS and put it into a generic
PC tower case, so I have this IIGS case lying around which
I am thinking of putting a Macintosh or a Windows PC
motherboard in.

I once had a DuoDisk drive in which Drive 1 died.  I
disconnected Drive 2's leads and plugged it into Drive
1's leads to the analog board.  Then I trashed Drive 2,
sawed the DuoDisk's case in half, and glued the side
back on.  I ended up with a very nice looking pseudo-
UniDisk 5.25.  This kind of stuff strikes me as FUN, but to
a serious collector, it must seem like sacrilege.  Sorry.

Finally, I've read about this one user who transplanted a
PowerMac motherboard into a IIe case and then ran
Bernie on it.  Now THAT's also fun.  ;-)