Re: Should I get two floppy drives?

["William Garber" <willy46pa@garberstreet.com>]

"schmidtd" <schmidtd@my-deja.com> wrote in message 1172267988.884880.106380@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com">news:1172267988.884880.106380@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
: On Feb 23, 3:38 pm, "William Garber" <willy4...@garberstreet.com>
: wrote:
: > "MarkW" <mark...@removenospamcomcast.net>
: > wrote in messager6jut2duu64hmiq05rs5hn1as52aft7q0u@4ax.com">news:r6jut2duu64hmiq05rs5hn1as52aft7q0u@4ax.com...
: > : 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?
: That is true.  But using a 3.5" floppy as your
: transfer medium is kind of foreign to an IIe.
: Little if any non-IIgs software is on 3.5"
: disks or disk images.

This works very well on a IIe. You have a 1.44
disk filled with 140K DSK images which you can
turn to real 5.25" disks using Mark Percival's
DiskMaker8. The Superdrive will work even on a
II+, and can read 1.44 ProDOS disks. Not sure
if DiskMaker8 works on a II+ though.

: > : 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.
: The software using the Uther card (Contiki, ADTPro) generally needs
: some TCP/IP setup done.  Contiki is quite simple.  The stack ADTPro
: uses doesn't have TCP (only UDP) support, so there's no DNS
: resolution.  You have to type in IP addresses numerically.

Well, you can't even assume to have all you would have
on a more modern machine on an Apple IIe or IIgs. Yet,
Contiki can download a 140K image straight to disk even
on a IIe right from Asimov. I've done it, many times.

: > This way no MS-DOS FST is necessary.
: An IIe isn't going to be running GSOS or FSTs at all. :-)

Hence my solution, which works on a II+ or IIe. :o)))

: So, this boils down to how you want to do
: world-to-Apple transfers.

This is the absolute truth.

: No option is cost-free.  Some options you have:
:  * Compact flash adapter, Ciderpress
:  * Uther, ADTPro

Both readily obtainable, and not too expensive,
being I have several of the first option, and
one of the second, however, I have never used
ADT in any form.

:  * $uperdrive controller, FDHD

Most likely the hardest to obtain, and can be
very expensive depending on where you buy and
from whom. This was very plentiful at one time,
and IIRC, the controller was $30 at the time.
I bought about a half dozen then, and have sold
off all but one. Still kicking myself for that.
I thought I had 2 left.  :o(((

:  * Super Serial + USB serial adapter, ADT

Probably the cheapest method to date, and the
easiest to set up and operate for most people.

William Garber
Email Address - willy46pa@garberstreet.com
Alt. Email - willy46pa@comcast.net
Web address - http://www.garberstreet.com