Re: Did the Apple II use single-density 5.25" drives?

[Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2013, barrym95838 wrote:

> It's been many years since I fired up my old Franklin, but I seem to 
> remember that it had a modified DOS 3.3 system master (called FDOS, I 
> think) that, among other things, allowed the internal drives to read and 
> write 35-track and 40-track disks seamlessly.  What I never discovered 
> is whether or not the standard Disk ][ drives were able to position 
> their heads as far in as the internal Franklin drives.  I suppose that I 
> could have tried booting the modified system master on my //e, but I 
> never did, for some reason.  It might have been a good reason, but I 
> just don't remember.
That's interesting.  The Apple drives may have been able to do 40 tracks, 
perhaps it was easier to just use the same drives minus the controller 
board that were standard.  Who knows.

I mentioned that the Radio Shack controller for the Color Computer only 
did 35 tracks, and it also only did single side.  So there were various 
third party ROMs to make better use of the better drives.  I used 
something that turned out to be unlike the rest (or unlike what Radio 
Shack went to when they finally adapted to the newer drives).  I can't 
remember what was standard, see the floppy as one single unit so the files 
were spread over both sides, or treat it as two single sided drives.  I 
think the former was standard.  Anyway, the ROM I used was the 
non-standard.

So I have a few years of files using that odd setup.  And the ROM is 
actually an eprom lying around somewhere, I have no idea if it's still 
good.  And the ROM only works with the original CoCo, not the III.  SO I 
hvae to dig through layers if I want to get at them, and then no easy way 
to transfer them.  I think a few of those files would be nice to have.

But the point is, there were various schemes in those days by various 
companies to get more onto the floppies, and they were fine, until you 
wanted to use the floppies to transfer files, at which point the extra 
and thus incompatible space became a liability.

  Michael