Re: Question re: Applied Engineering 3.5" Disk Drive

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@telus.spamless.net>]

Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
> All,
>
> I picked up an AE 3.5" external disk drive.  Can anyone tell me if this is:
>
> a) Capable of handling 1.44M diskettes
> b) Able to do so when attached to an Apple "SuperDrive" controller (the
>    latter residing in a //gs.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Steve

Depends on which AE floppy drive you have. I have the AEHD which will
handle 1.44mb floppies in two ways. Attached to a SuperDrive card it'll
function just like a regular SuperDrive.
Attached to the IIgs floppy port it acts like a regular 800k drive
unless you have the AEHD driver. With the AEHD driver it becomes capable
of using a 1.6mb format. Unfortunately as far as I know nothing else
will read this format.

Mines put away right now as around here it's a rare drive and I'm
finding lots of Apple SuperDrive mechanisms readily, enough so that I
converted about 15 800k drives and started wondering if there wasn't
some situation where a SuperDrive mechanism wouldn't be backward
compatible with the 800k one. I mean where some IIgs software wouldn't 
work with a SuperDrive hooked up to the disk port and acting as an 800k 
drive instead of a regular 800k drive.
The only incompatibility I've run into is has been hardware related. 
When the drive mechanism on a 3.5" UniDisk packed it in. I tried
swapping in a SuperDrive mechanism but it was no go, the 3.5" UniDisk
wouldn't function at all with the SuperDrive mechanism installed. I knew
there was no possibility of it working as a SuperDrive but I thought it
should function as an 800k drive.

	Wayne