Re: Write 3.5" disk image in Windows

[bnfmsgeek <bnfmsgeek@gmail.com>]

On Sep 24, 6:50 pm, Polymorph <polymorp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 25, 8:56 am, bnfmsgeek <bnfmsg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Sep 24, 5:28 pm, Linards Ticmanis <ticma...@gmx.de> wrote:
>
> > > bnfmsgeek wrote:
> > > > What do you mean by "variable speed" floppy drive hardware?
>
> > > To write Apple (or Macintosh) 800 KB floppy disks, you need a either
> > > drive that can spin the actual disk at five different speeds, such as an
> > > older Apple floppy drive, or (this is the much less used variant) a very
> > > special floppy controller card that can send the data to the drive at
> > > five different speeds - standard controllers can't do that. Only
> > > pre-iMac floppy drives from Apple can spin in five speeds and those from
> > > other companies can't do it at all.
>
> > > Apple/Mac 1440 KB disks don't need that ability as they use the same
> > > low-level bit structure as MS-DOS 1440 KB floppies, but on the other
> > > hand the built-in disk port of a IIgs (or IIc) can only deal with 800 KB
> > > disks. So your 1440 KB capable drive for the Apple will only be doing
> > > 800 KB if it's connected to the built-in port; it can only do 1440 KB if
> > > it's hanging off its own special controller card.
>
> > > > Would my
> > > > usb external drive work?
>
> > > For writing 800 KB disks, no, the hardware of your USB drive is
> > > physically incapable of writing that format. For writing 1440 KB disks,
> > > yes it would work, if you have a program on your Mac that can handle
> > > ProDOS floppy disk images (such as CiderPress does on Windows). I have
> > > no idea if such a program exists for Mac OS X.
>
> > > --
> > > Linards Ticmanis
>
> > So how do I use ciderpress in windows?- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Hmmm....I feel that this thread is going nowhere fast. Can you please
> explain in detail *exactly* what you are trying to do. There are many
> ways to skin a cat, but first we need to find out exactly what cat
> we're dealing with.  ;-)
>
> If you are just trying to get GS/OS 6.0.1 images onto your IIgs, then
> the easiest option is to transfer them from your Mac to your IIgs
> using ADTPro. If, as you say, your transfers are taking 15 minutes
> each, then maybe we need to fix that problem first. In order to do
> this however, we need to know what you are using to do the transfer.
> Outline which ADTPro version you have, what serial cables you are
> using, are you using a SSC or the IIgs serial port, what (if any) mass
> storage device does your IIgs have, do you have a superdrive
> controller for your HD drive, etc.... Try and be as detailed as
> possible. The fixing of this problem will certainly lessen the pain
> not only for transfering GS/OS, but any other disk images you choose
> to transfer in future.
>
> Unless you have a superdrive card, creating *any* 1.44Mb disks under
> any operating system are going to be useless to you on your IIgs, as
> you will not be able to read them.
>
> Thanks,
> -p

OK Here goes....

I have a IIgs w/ a regular old apple floppy drive, and an Applied
Engineering one. I looked it up on the internet, and Wikipedia says
that it can take either 1.44 meg floppies or 800k ones. I have no
special card to read 1.44m ones so right now I have only 1.44meg (HD)
ones, that I just format to be 800k. Don't argue about the effects of
doing it that way, as I've read enough about them, and I plan to use
them for shorter time periods anyway. Somebody's giving me more
floppies later this week (including 800k ones) I have no mass storage
(unfortuneatly) on my GS. I have a laptop (running xp) that I can
connect to my GS, but I had troubles with that (as schmidtd might
remember from the sourceforge forums of ADT). I was, however able to
get a desktop running vista working fine with it (besides the time
issue). I connect my PC to my II by means of a USB-serial adapter in a
null-modem configuration. I also happen to have access to any iBook
(Dual USB) running OSX 3.?.?, which the power cord is broken. I might
be able to get another cord via my local Mac User's Group. I also have
a usb external floppy drive I can use on my XP machine and possibly my
mac. I want to be able to find a way to transfer disk images in a
reasonable amount of time at a reasonable price (i.e. not more than
I've already spent, as I'm only 14 and extremely thrifty)