Re: Need Answers to Simple //gs Questions !

[marvinisnot@home.com (Marvin Miller)]

Thanks David, that really cleared up a lot and I can now start digging
for some of the items on E-bay (with some knowledge about what to look
for!)

Best;
Marvin

On Mon, 23 Oct 2000 00:51:06 +1300, dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David
Empson) wrote:

>Marvin Miller <marvinisnot@home.com> wrote:
>
>> Which are the proper 5.25 drives to use for this system?
>
>The same ones you would use on an Apple IIe.  A UniDisk 5.25, Apple 5.25
>Drive or Disk //c can be connected directly to the drive port, or
>daisy-chained from the back of 3.5" drives.  If you want to use a Disk
>][, you will need an adaptor cable to convert it to the UniDisk-style 19
>pin connector.
>
>> Can you use any size SCSI drive?
>
>In theory, yes.  Under ProDOS-8, the practical limit is about 200 MB.
>With GS/OS you should be able to deal with anything up to 4 GB, though
>you are likely to have trouble filling anything that big.
>
>The ProDOS file system must be used for the first partition (all
>partitions if you are only using ProDOS-8) and ProDOS only supports 32
>MB per partition.  This means that you will need to create a lot of
>partitions on a large drive.
>
>If you use GS/OS, you have the option of using one or more HFS
>partitions, each of which can be up to 2 GB.  These won't be accessible
>under ProDOS-8, and won't use space as efficiently as ProDOS-8 if larger
>than 32 MB.
>
>> What's the best Scsi card to put in it?
>
>Either the RamFast (revision D) or the Apple High-Speed card.  The
>original Apple card will do in a pinch, but it is significantly slower,
>and only lets you access seven partitions under ProDOS-8.
>
>> Will all the mouldy-oldy A2 programs run on it? That's the real focus
>> here.
>
>For the most part, yes.  You will probably have to set the system speed
>to "Normal" for speed-critical software such as old games.  In general,
>anything that runs on a IIc or enhanced IIe will probably run on the
>IIgs as well.
>
>> Do you need special floppys or can you use any new style IBM ones?
>
>Do you mean drives or disks?
>
>Assuming you mean disks: you should use double density 3.5" disks, not
>high density ones.  It doesn't matter if they are preformatted IBM -
>just reformat them on the IIgs.
>
>> Is there a CDROM unit available for this unit? What would I be looking
>> for?
>
>With the Apple SCSI cards, you can use all features of the oldest three
>Apple CD-ROM drive models (Apple CDSC, CDSC+ and CD-150).  You can also
>use later Apple external models but won't be able to control their audio
>features from the computer.
>
>The situation is less clear with third party drives.  I'd expect all but
>really old CD-ROM drives to work.  (Old ones tended to use proprietary
>command sets, which don't work with the Apple II.)
>
>The RamFast may support a wider variety of drives, for both audio and
>data.