Re: AEHD drive

[John Townsend <utownje@lexis-nexis.com>]

Pim Blokland wrote:

> Yes, and in those docs it is mentioned that you can format MS-DOS disks
> with it, while a few lines down it says that you can't. And although the
> site itself was updated early last year, the docs (in which it says that
> the drive is shipping _now_) date from 1994. And it says that ProDOS
> 5.25" floppies are 360K. And that all formats mentioned are MFM, even
> though ProDOS 800K appears in the list.
> So I've written them a note asking about all this. If I receive a reply
> (sorry, I meant "When") I'll fill you in.

Admittedly, maintaining a web site is not Joachim's forte, but I think the
BlueDisk and MicroDrive are very nice products.  I just bought some cards
and other stuff from him last fall, and though he wasn't always easy to get
ahold of, it was a pleasure dealing with him and the cards work great.  IMO,
the only problem with the BlueDisk is that since it is an MFM-only interface
(Apple's SuperDrive controller does both MFM and GCR), it can't read the
usual Apple II 800K GCR disks.  It does do a "hybrid" 800K format on DD
disks, using MFM for the low-level format but a ProDOS file system, but you
have to keep your old 3.5 Drive around for reading commercial disks and
disks from other A2 users.  Still, it does give you the ability to share HD
disks with PCs and Macs.  Joachim sells his cards with a 30-day money back
guarantee (how often do you get *that* for A2 stuff anymore?), and it just
feels darn good to buy new stuff for the II anyway. :-)

--
John E. Townsend
Sr. Software Engineer          "Machines should work;
LEXIS-NEXIS                     people should think."
Dayton, OH, USA                        -- IBM Pollyanna Principle
utownje@lexis-nexis.com