Re: Broken Unidisk 3.5" drive?

["william strutts" <wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com>]

"Rodney Hester" <rod3@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:9kss8k$s69$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net...
> I have received a used Unidisk 3.5" drive and am having a bit of trouble
> with it.  Hooking it up to my GS, the drive is detected (as GS/OS
complained
> much about the lack of an installed Unidisk driver ;), "clicks" regularly
> (once at the desktop), and seems to be outwardly working normally.
>
> However, inserting a disk is a little too...easy.  There's no click, no
> obvious indication that the disk has been inserted (including not being
> recognized at all by GS/OS), and the eject button seems to have no
function.
> The best way to remove the floppy seems to be with tweezers.  :P
>
> Given this condition, can anyone a) tell me if this is supposed to be an
> auto-inject or manual-inject drive, and b) give me some _simple_ possible
> repair tips?  (As this was auctioned as a working drive, I've little
> incentive to do "deep" and potentially damaging repair work, except that
the
> drive is a little rare and was difficult for me to find at a reasonable
> price.)
>
> Thanks very much for any insight!
>
> Rodney
>
> P.S.: If it is designed as manual-inject and the floppy mechanism is both
> easily removed and easily replaced by a standard Apple 3.5" drive
mechanism,
> I'd be happy to do that if reasonably detailed instructions exist.
>

You need to install the Unidisk 3.5" driver for the disk drive
since it works differently than a stock 3.5" apple drive.  It is
polled constantly under GS/OS because the drive is a smart
drive and has its own processor and memory.  It is not
directly controlled by IIgs as the Apple 3.5" drives are.
It has different drive characteristics such as a 4:1 interleave
versus a 2:1 interleave for the stock drive.  Does it
work under ProDOS?  It doesn't require a special driver
to work under ProDOS. The drive should eject the disk
when the disk eject button is pushed.  Is the cable properly
seated?  Is it first on the drive chain before any 5.25" drives
but after any Apple 3.5" drives?  This is important since
the drive order matters.  Any Apple 3.5" drives should
come first then any Unidisk 3.5" drives and then any
5.25" drives.  Hope that helps.

--
--
William R. Strutts - wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com - Whatever!

C'est moi!  http://www.facelink.com/wrstrutts

Just hacking away...

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