Re: Should I get two floppy drives?

[MarkW <markwco@removenospamcomcast.net>]

Great suggestions! I was for awhile considering just getting a
Superdrive controller card and FDHD drive. I may be wrong but I assume
then you can get the 1.44 3.5" drive and just read PC disks and copy
it over to the Apple II onto 5.25" disks.  Is that true?  If so, would
a good system then involve one 5.25" Disk II and a 3.5" drive, using
the 3.5" for copying over from the IBM and as well for booting or can
it boot from the 3.5" drive.
The other option I'm highly considering is the Ethernet card.  I'm not
sure how hard it is to use but I have a ethernet network in my house
so it seems like it would be the simplest solution, even better than
the serial card option since my PC's and Mac's don't have serial
cards.

On 22 Feb 2007 13:03:53 -0800, "schmidtd" <schmidtd@my-deja.com>
wrote:

>On Feb 22, 2:41 pm, MarkW <mark...@removenospamcomcast.net> wrote:
>> My question:  I know I obviously need a drive controller card and many
>> on ebay seem to have these and come with one drive.  If I purchase  a
>> 2nd drive separately will it hook into that card also or do I need a
>> 2nd card.  I wasn't sure if they may 1 drive cards.
>
>All the adapters can support two drives.  There are two different
>connectors, though: an internal header-style with ribbon cable, and an
>external 19-pin D-shell with round, shielded cable.  This site has all
>the different kinds of Apple drives:
>http://www.mandrake.demon.co.uk/Apple/drives.html
>Whichever adapter/disk combo you end up with, buy a second drive that
>matches the first.
>
>> As well, where do most of you get your software?
>
>We write it. :-)  Oh, ok, and there's also Asimov:
>ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II
>There are lots of Apple emulation sites on the web that have disk
>images.  Once you have disk images (a 140k file, often ending in
>".dsk") you need to transfer them from your internet-connected
>computer down to the Apple.  For that, you need a communications card
>of some sort; most folks end up with an Apple Super Serial card.
>Depending on software and hardware you might have on hand, there are
>various levels of bootstrapping and transfer you'll need to go
>through.  The Apple Disk Transfer (ADT) and its descendants can be
>used to to do that:
>http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/bootstrap.html
>
>A newer option is the Uthernet card, which lets you hook up to your
>ethernet network:
>http://www.a2retrosystems.com/
>There are lots of new opportunities when going that route.
>
>> I always dream of one but grew up with a Commodore 64. I
>> used to enjoy the Apple, the basic programming, etc. so figured it
>> will be a great hobby in my spare time.
>
>I grew up with Apple Envy too.  25 years later, the machines got a lot
>cheaper.