Re: IIgs Software Basics

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford) writes...
>In article <9AUG199619330871@vax2.concordia.ca>,
>Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
> 
>>    Your only partly correct. The AE High Density drive was merely a
>>SuperDrive clone, with a Sony mechanism that was similar to the one
>>Apple used (though slightly lesser). In that sense it _can_ work with
>>1.44MB diskettes, but you will require the Apple II 3.5 Controller 
>>Card in order to do so.
> 
>Are you sure they're Sonys? AE made a big deal of how their drives were
>cheaper than Apple's, and the ones I've seen have good ol' manual inject.

    According to an InCider/A+ review of the AE FDHD drive, it does.
Apparently it was the Sony model F17W-5PF mechanism (I can't read the
model code on my Apple SuperDrive without opening the case to compare).
That particular model does not have inject, you have to force disks in,
unlike official Apple SuperDrives.

>>    The AE driver allowed it to format a non-standard 1.6MB GCR format.
>>That is fairly useless, unless you know friends who also have the same
>>floppy drive and driver. I wonder though, would a true SuperDrive be
>>able to read/write 1.66MB GCR if AE's driver is installed? (connected
>>to the GS's Smartport, not the FDHD controller card).
> 
>Yep I remember 'em saying you couldn't boot from a 1.6 disk either. Pretty
>pointless to have marketed it if you ask me

    Well at least it was useful for making offline backups for private
use (though you'd have a fun time retrieving data should your AE drive
break down :). I'm currently using ProDOS disks formatted at 1.44MB to
back-up and clean off my hardrive, but that least that data is easily
accessible off the IIgs. Most any Macintosh or PC can read MFM ProDOS
disks with the right software ('procopy.exe' on DOS machines for example).
Owning 1.6MB GCR diskettes is about as risky as sticking your data on
Lisa 5.25 HD Twiggy disks (it'll work, but nothing else can read your 
important data!)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca