Re: Apple External 3.5" drive

[ag471@yfn.ysu.edu (Eric S. Ford)]

In a previous article, croton@owens (Cyrus Roton) says:

>On 17 Mar 1995, Eric S. Ford wrote:
>
>> I recently responded to an offer to buy an Apple External 3.5" drive
>> thinking it was the same as the device I have connected to my GS.  Imagine
>> my reaction when I discovered it was not.  Instead it looks like a Mac
>> drive.  Now, before I connect this thing to my GS, here's my question: will
>> it work?  And, should I be concerned about potentially damaging my system
>> by hooking it up?  Lastly, is the internal mechanism similar enough that its
>> parts could be used to repair another GS 3.5" drive?
>>
>If the drive in question is an 800K drive for the Mac, there should be no
>problem (as far as I know) in using it with the IIgs or with a IIe. My
>3.5 drive on my IIe works fine on my Mac and on a friend's IIgs.
>
>Actually, the drive I bought for my IIe turned out to be a 1.44Meg drive.
>Since the IIe treats that as an 800K drive, I swapped it to my friend to
>use on his IIgs. He gave me the 800K drive from his IIgs, which I can use
>with IIe and Mac.

Okay, I think we might be getting confused.  The IIe requires the Unidisk,
and a special controller card; the Unidisk will work on the GS without the
controller card; the 1.44 drive requires a special controller on both the
IIe and GS; the stock GS 3.5 drive will not work on a IIe.  I believe the
Unidisk will NOT work on a Mac.  The only other possibility would be the
Applied Engineering 1.44 drive, which I believe also required a special
controller.  In any case, unless your friend gave you a Unidisk (for which
you already have the controller installed) any drive which works on a Mac
will not work on the IIe.  Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Now, back to my problem.  I still haven't gotten a definitive answer whether
a Mac 800k 3.5 external drive will work on the GS.  The drives are different,
I'm just not sure if the differences are significant.




--
Eric S. Ford	 	   "Time: it's what keeps history from
ag471@yfn.ysu.edu	    happening all at once." G.Effinger
E.Ford6@genie.geis.com