SuperDrive Card (Apple II 3.5" Disk Controller Card) and FDHD Questions...

["Warren Ernst" <wernst@gmail.com>]

All,

Over the past month I've managed to buy:

1. One Apple II 3.5" Disk Controller Card (aka the SuperDrive card),
untested, but looks good.

2. Two "FDHD drive mechanisms," but the seller doesn't know anything
about them. I have my doubts that these are really FDHD mechanisms (see
below).

3. Three Apple 3.5" drives.

Let's see if I can keep this all straight.

All three Apple 3.5" drives work just fine when hooked up to the drive
port of a GS (this is a Rom03 model). So far, so good.

All three drives ALSO work fine, as 800k drives, when plugged into the
Apple II 3.5" Disk Controller Card installed into slot 5, and the GS
Slots control panel is set to "Your Card." Also good. BUT, the LED on
the top of the card doesn't turn on. I don't know under what conditions
it is supposed to light up.

I've taken apart one of the Apple 3.5" drives to install one of the
FDHD mechanisms, but the new "FDHD" mechanism looks just like the
normal 800k mechanism. I mean, all the circuit boards and part numbers
are the same, all the numbers on the chips are the same, and the part
number "MFD-51W-03" (a lablel on the side of the drive mechanism)  on
my "FDHD" drive AND what was in my Apple 3.5" drive is listed at
http://www.mandrake.demon.co.uk/Apple/part_nos.txt as "661-0345	Disk
Drive 800K -Red Serial # (MFD-51W-03)" In other words, it looks like
the High Density drives I bought are actually 800k drives.

And as you might expect, the drive with the new "FDHD" mechanism,
either when hooked up to the card or the built-in port, only reads and
writes 800k disks.

OK, so it looks like I have some spare 800k drive mechanisms. OK. Fine.

However, after going through all this, it occurs to me that I don't
know what the LED on the card is supposed to indicate. I don't know how
to format a High Density disk under ProDOS. I don't know if I need
extra software to read from or write to a HD disk formatted in a PC.

Can anyone answer any of these last questions for me?

Thanks,
Warr