Apple II Disk II question

[Theretrogamingroom]

I am facing an issue with my Apple IIes and Disk II Drives. When I connect two drives to the Disk II card, the first one powers up but the second one doesn't. I have switched the Drives so that the Second Disk Drive is in the first socket and the First Disk Drive is in the second Socket. The same thing happens. I have even tried using another Disk II card and switching the Drives again. Again, the same thing happens. If there is a Disk Drive connected to the second socket, that drive will not power on.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[david__schmidt]

This sounds familiar - have you posted this same question on another board, by chance?

I am facing an issue with my Apple IIes and Disk II Drives. When I connect two drives to the Disk II card, the first one powers up but the second one doesn't.

I'm not sure what you mean by "powers up." If you have two drives connected, and turn the Apple II on, the first drive will spin until/unless a bootable disk is inserted. The second drive won't do anything.

I have switched the Drives so that the Second Disk Drive is in the first socket and the First Disk Drive is in the second Socket. The same thing happens. I have even tried using another Disk II card and switching the Drives again. Again, the same thing happens. If there is a Disk Drive connected to the second socket, that drive will not power on.

This sounds normal. Can you explain what you expect the second drive to do, exactly?

 

[Theretrogamingroom]

I think you just answered my question.

Thanks

 

[coius]

I was gonna say the first drive (Say, DISK 1) will be accessed when the Apple II boots, but the other drives have to be Queried before they will access a disk. I have observed this on my Apple IIe upon booting. You can try popping in an ADT Pro disk and try to format using the second drive. if it accesses, you know it's passing the signal

 

[Scott Baret]

It's a little confusing to first-time Disk II users who have only used Macs before. If you place a startup floppy in the second drive of a Mac (internal or external), it will boot from the disk even if the first drive is empty.

As coius notes, on an Apple II, only the first drive gets accessed upon boot. The same thing will happen if you're using a DuoDisk drive or the newer UniDisk/Apple 5.25" Drive with the II, II+, or IIe. (There are exceptions with other Apple II models, which I won't get into at the moment).

You'll find few programs actually utilize the second disk drive. Most larger programs either use two-sided disks (called "flippies") or require a second disk to be inserted in drive one--in place of the original.

 

[Dog Cow]

(There are exceptions with other Apple II models, which I won't get into at the moment).

Some models of IIc will boot the external drive (which would be drive #2) with PR#7.

 

[Theretrogamingroom]

Thanks for the info guys.

A few more things:

What do I press to get programming (10, 20, 30, etc)?

What is the code to access a disk from each drive?

*Insert anything else that a first time Apple II user should know here*

 

[Dog Cow]

What do I press to get programming (10, 20, 30, etc)?

To get into BASIC, press Control-Reset.

A ] (bracket) pompt will appear.

What is the code to access a disk from each drive?

You'll need to boot up with either DOS 3.3 or ProDOS. You can then use the D argument with most commands. For example, CATALOG D2 will produce a catalog of the disk in drive 2.

*Insert anything else that a first time Apple II user should know here*

Check out the Apple II FAQs: http://apple2.info/wiki/index.php?title=CSA2_FAQ

 

[magnusfalkirk]

To program the Apple II in Basic you need to be looking at a screen with the ] prompt blinking on it. From there you simply type the line number and whatever basic programming the line contains. Unfortunately the Apple II doesn't do automatic line numbering in Basic, to get something like that you'll need something like Beagle Bros Program Writer program or one of several other programs that will help you write a Basic program.

As far as code to access the drives hopefully someone else on the forum who knows more than I do about programming the Apple II will chime in.

Hope this hels,

Dean

 

[H3NRY]

Look for a copy of the Apple II Reference Manual, the DOS 3.3 Reference Manual, and the Applesoft Reference Manual. If you haven't used an Apple II before, you'll need manuals. The old machines don't work like Macs and Windows. They give you no clue to what commands they will accept at any given time. There are no menus until you run an application (which may or may not offer menus). I'm sure there are online resources, but as an old-timer who learned these machines when they were new, I have no clue where they might be found. Google should be a good start. Have fun.