Re: SVD (Semi-Virtual Diskette) support for Apple ][s now documented

[salfter@salfter.diespammersdie.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter)]

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In article <M9adnc_yzuGEPSPfRVn-qw@comcast.com>,
Vince Briel <vbriel@comcast.net> wrote:
>What I really like about the SVD is that it makes your Apple II completely 
>solid-state, no moving motor components! Do you get any speed enhancements, 
>NO because it runs off the Disk II controller card and is a timed device but 
>you NEVER have to worry about diskette failure.

FWIW, the 5.25" floppy format the Apple II used is fairly robust.  As long as
you didn't use el-cheapo disks back in the day and as long as your disks
weren't subjected to environmental extremes over the years, there's no
reason why a 20-year-old (or older) disk shouldn't be readable.  I just
grabbed the ProDOS boot disk that came with my IIe back when it was new (20
years ago, next month), stuck it in the drive, and read everything off of it
with no errors.

I'd like to archive all of my floppies to CD-ROM at some point (probably
don't have enough stuff to even fill a CD, let alone a DVD) anyway, but I
don't think they're all going to start going bad anytime soon.

That said, the SVD looks like an interesting gadget.  The cross-platform
compatibility is a nice feature...of the machines I have, it'd probably be
more useful with my TI-99/4A or my CoCo than with my Apple IIs (my IIGS is
connected to the LAN and can easily grab stuff from anywhere and put it on
floppy for the other IIs; I can't say the same for the TI and the CoCo).

  _/_
 / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/            Top-posting!
 \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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