Re: Salvaging Apple IIe Documents

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On 22 Sep 1998 14:13:33 -0500, "TopCat" <Len-K@compuserve.com> wrote:

>A good friend of mine owns an Apple IIe and has several disks worth of
>letters and papers that he would like to transfer to either Mac or PC
>formatted disks.  I tried connecting the Apple external 3.5" drive chained
>to the 5.25" to the IIe and then to the IIGS I got at a yard sale, but the
>system software we have (Applewriter and Appleworks ) is apparently too old
>to support 3.5" drives. I tried plugging the 5.25 " drive into a Mac
>Classic running Apple Exchange but it cannot communicate with that drive. 
>Is there a solution, either hardware or software one.
>Thanks in advance!
>Len
>
>I've heard something about a software package called MUGI (?). Could
>someone tell me where I could find it?

The order that the drives get connected to a IIgs is important.  If
you only have one of each drive like your post indicates, then you
want to plug the 3.5" drive into the IIgs disk port and plug the 5.25"
drive into the daisy-chain port on the 3.5" drive.  Then ProDOS (also
called ProDOS 8), ProDOS 16 and GS/OS should recognize both drives
just fine.

If the 3.5" drive that you have is only a double density GCR drive
(can only hold 800k of data) then MUG! won't help you.  MUG! allows
you to write to MS-DOS disks and to be able to use them on an IBM or
compatible, you need to have an MFM drive that can store either 720k
or 1.44M.  This requires either a SuperDrive with a SuperDrive
controller card, a standard IBM floppy drive connected to a BlueDisk
controller card, a floptical drive connected to a SCSI card, or I
think some people have had limited success using the Apple 3.5 Drive
(double density GCR drive) connected to a PC transporter card and
creating 720k MFM disk with it.

The easiest way to transfer from a IIgs to an IBM or compatible is to
use communcations software on both machines and connected then
together with a null-modem cable.

For transferring to a Mac, once you connect the drive correctly, all
you need is GS/OS v5.04 or higher.  These versions of GS/OS come with
the HFS FST which allows the IIgs to format/read/write Mac HFS disks.
Most, if not all,  Macs should be able to read both 800k GCR and 1.44M
MFM formatted HFS disks.

Also, for transferring to a Mac, you could also try to use AppleTalk
file sharing.  Again, you need a newer version of GS/OS (if using a
single 3.5" drive then you might want to stick with v5.04) you can set
up AppleTalk stuff on the IIgs boot disk and plug the serial ports of
the IIgs and Mac together and transfer stuff that way.  You'd need
someone more knowledgeable than me about this topic if you want to
give it a try.  I've never owned a Mac so have never tried it.

You can also use the null-modem cable idea to transfer to a Mac.

Hope this helps.

=== To ensure I see a reply please also e-mail me but remember to:
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    Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University on Delphi