Re: Apple II 3.5" Controller and SuperDrive problems...

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

mkelsey@spam.eecs.wsu.edu wrote:

>From what I understood, one could neither connect a IIGS drive to the
>UniDisk //e controller nor the //c, simply because the //e and //c
>processor alone would never be able to keep up with the data stream.
>This all made good sense, until I bought the Apple II 3.5" controller.

Correct.  When the IIc Plus came along, it was fast enough to use
the GS & Macintosh style 3.5" drives.  Ironically, I am not so sure
the IIc Plus could use a UniDisk 3.5 because of this.

>I tested out a Mac 800K drive, which worked fine with the CPS UDC,
>and it wasn't detected.

If it is one of those old pre-GS Mac 800K drives without the eject
button, the CPS UDC is the only Apple II controller that can use
these drives.

>I connected a bare Macintosh SuperDrive and it wasn't detected.  I
>then mounted the Macintosh SuperDrive in one of the IIGS drive
>cases and the drive was detected. I popped in a 720K MS-DOS and
>verified blocks with Copy II Plus.  No errors.  I popped in a 1.44MB
>MS-DOS and verified the disk with no problems.  I tested out an
>emergency Apple II 800k disk and it verified with no errors. 
>
>Then came the acid test.  I tried formmatting a 1.44MB disk and it
>gets about (what sounds like) 10 tracks into formmatting and returns
>an error.  Kindly the drive ejects the disk.

Did you format from Finder?  Use Finder or another GS specific utility
because you want to use the GS/OS Apple 3.5" driver.  This driver
is aware of the SuperDrive while hard coded ProDOS 8-bit utilities
may not be.  ProTerm, for example, simply refuses to format a high
density disk in such a drive.

>Suddenly things became VERY clear.  Apparently the mainboard beneath
>the drive (mounted inside the IIGS drive case) is handling tasks like
>motor speed, and the likes, during a format command, thereby limiting
>the drives capabilities.

Many have reported success with this method.  It might just be your
formatting software.

>Is there ANY way I can get the Apple II 3.5" controller to work with
>the SuperDrive as a SuperDrive, aside from buying one at a ghastly
>price?

If you can't get it to format even with Finder or other GS specific format
utilities, just buy pre-formatted Mac or PC floppies and use the Erase
option from the Finder.  It takes less than 1 second and gives you an
instant 1.44MB ProDOS disk.