Re: How to tell a SuperDrive???

["Phil Abel" <phil_nospam_abel@prodigy.nospam.net>]

Maybe they don't all work this way, but my SuperDrives all have an amber
drive activity LED and my 800k 3.5 drives all have a red LED.

"David Empson" <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote in message
1fsn4mb.g013y5q27az6N%dempson@actrix.gen.nz">news:1fsn4mb.g013y5q27az6N%dempson@actrix.gen.nz...
> Terry & Utahna <tolsen64@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > How can I tell if a drive is a SuperDrive?  I picked up an Apple 3.5"
drive
> > from Salvation Army.  It looks just like an 800K drive to me.  But it
has a
> > hand-written sticker on the front that says "1.44MB SuperDrive".  I
don't
> > have a SuperDrive controller card so I can't verify that it actually is
a
> > SuperDrive.  The sticker on the bottom just says "Apple 3.5 Drive".
>
> You can't tell by looking at the case, because both the 800K and 1.44MB
> mechanisms fit in any case, i.e. the labelling could be wrong.
>
> One way to be certain would be to plug it into a SuperDrive controller
> (or a Mac with SuperDrive support).
>
> You might be able to identify a SuperDrive mechanism by close
> observation of the disk sensors just inside the disk insertion opening:
> the SuperDrive has three sensors (disk present, write protect, and
> density hole) while the 800K mechanism only has two (disk present and
> write protect).
>
> I expect you could conclusively identify the mechanism by taking it out
> of the case and checking the part number, but I don't know what they
> are.
>
> --
> David Empson
> dempson@actrix.gen.nz