Re: Apple External 3.5" drive

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <3kpc6r$37f@news.ysu.edu>, Eric S. Ford <ag471@yfn.ysu.edu> wrote:
> In a previous article, croton@owens (Cyrus Roton) says:
> >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.

This all depends on the controller card.  The "Liron" card, typically
used in the IIe (and incompatible with the IIgs), will only support
the UniDisk 3.5.  The "SuperDrive" card (a.k.a. "Apple 3.5 Disk
Controller Card") will support the UniDisk 3.5, Apple 3.5 Drive or
SuperDrive (high density) in a IIe or IIgs.  The Universal Disk
Controller will also work with an Apple 3.5 Drive in a IIe.

Also note that you can use a SuperDrive on a IIgs, plugged directly
into the disk port, but it will act just like an Apple 3.5 Drive.  You
need the SuperDrive controller to be able to access 720k and 1.44MB
disks.

> I believe the Unidisk will NOT work on a Mac.

Correct.

> The only other possibility would be the Applied Engineering 1.44
> drive, which I believe also required a special controller.

It should work with the SuperDrive card.  Their 1.6MB drive also works
directly on the IIgs disk port with a special driver.


--
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand