Re: A "NEW" old AppleII/e User with lots of questions ...

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <32915468.32D9@primenet.com>,
Charles P. Hobbs <transit@primenet.com> wrote:
>Edhel Iaur wrote:
>>> 3.) Is there a program to read/write/format Apple DOS 3.3 disks on PC's?

>> I thought I heard something about being able to do it with a
>> non-high-density 5.25" PC drive, but Nathan Mates insists there's no
>> way.

   If you read what I say each and every time, I insist that there's
no way _without_rare_addon_hardware_. Note the qualification-- plain
IBM PC can't do it, but if you have the right hardware setup, it is
possible.

   Once again, this is because the PC uses MFM encoding to place the
bits on the disk. The Apple II uses GCR. The job of turning the shifts
in the magnetic field into bits is done in part on the controller
card.  If the wrong signal comes in, it'll not just not recognize the
signal, it'll *scramble* it. There's no software way to undo the
scrambling; you must have the right hardware at the controller card
level to interpret the bits correctly.


>Around 1987 or so, there was a program for PC's called "Apple
>Turnover". It came with a special disk controller board that enabled
>PC's to read/write Apple II 5.25" disks.

   You said the magic words: 'special disk controller board.' Addon
hardware that does the job. This has always been the case.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein