Re: Q:Can you connect a 3.5" disk to a ][e

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) writes...

>Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
> 
>> In article remove@nospaam.com (Chet) writes...
>> 
>> >With the Superdrive Card and shareware you can also read
>> >PC and Mac files into a IIe through a number of programs.
>> 
>>     I was under the impression no programs exist for the 8-bit Apple IIe
>> (or Apple III) that allow you to read or write MFM encoded floppy disks,
>> such as PC MS-DOS disks or high density Macintosh HFS disks.
> 
>The Apple III is a moot point, because there is no card for connecting a
>3.5" drive (at minimum, you would need a driver to use the SuperDrive
>card, assuming it could be made to work at all).

    Actually it is not moot, and that is why I mentioned the Apple III
in the above paragraph. According to some people at WAP, the Apple II
3.5 Disk Controller Card does function in the Apple III (at least one
person is using the card in theirs) and someone did write an SOS driver 
to support it.

    There are Apple III's with 1.44 MB SuperDrives connected out there,
but probably less than a half dozen I'd imagine. :-) I wouldn't want 
to risk my card, so I've never tried plugging it in my Apple III (there 
would be little point anyhow, since I don't have that special driver).

>As far as the IIe is concerned:
> 
>A2FX and HFSLink _might_ support reading files from 1.44MB HFS disks,
>though I've never had any need to try this.

    That thought crossed my mind, though I haven't used either program
since the HFS FST was introduced in 1992 (I could dig them up and see
what happens, I do have a couple of 1.44 MB Mac HFS disks around).

>There is also an 8-bit utility program that copies files from an MS-DOS
>disk (but not to one).  I can't remember its name off-hand.

    That is interesting to know. I wonder if it doesn't come from the
people who designed the BlueDisk controller (that would seem to be the
most logical source of such a utility :).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca