Re: Imagewriter and ProFile Questions

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

In article cvotter@prairienet.org (Gary Sutton) writes...
>
>We recently picked up, dirt-cheap, a ProFile hard drive, [snip] 
>The problem with the Profile is just the lack of a cable to connect 
>it to the GS.  Anyone have a spare cable that can daisychain it to 
>the 5.25" drive, or will I need to get a SCSI card to use it?

   To use the ProFile hardrive on any Apple II model requires a special
controller interface and cable. The card is labeled "Apple II Interface".
Using it on an Apple IIgs, assuming you'll be running GS/OS, requires 
the card's ROM firmware be upgraded to a later version (341-0299-B). 
Apparently these cards are somewhat rare to locate, but you may be able 
to obtain one putting a request out on 'comp.sys.apple2.marketplace'.

   Do not attempt to connect the ProFile to anything _but_ the specific
controller mentioned above, it will not operate using a 5.25 controller
or through the built-in disk port (doing so may damage the drive and/or
your computer). As I recall, the ProFile transfers data via a some sort 
of parallel method, it is not SCSI, SASI, IDE or any other current type 
of hardrive protocol (I'm not sure what is inside, perhaps a Winchester
mechanism?). The ProFile is not the most ideal drive for a IIgs, it only
stores a total of 5 or 10MB and is quite slow, probably not much faster
than a floppy drive. Personally, I'd recommend nothing less than 100MB
connected via a DMA SCSI or IDE controller, as far as hardrive storage
on a IIgs is concerned.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca