FDHD/SuperDrive Manual

[Mac128]

I just picked up an FDHD external floppy disk manual. The part number is 030-1507-A and copyright 1989. Typically by this time, most first edition Apple manuals were issued initially with a "-A" suffix, so with a 1989 copyright date, I'm assuming this is the case as well, as I believe this drive was not sold as an external peripheral until 1989, even though the drive itself debuted with the IIx in 1988.

My question is, does anybody have the manual that came with the re-branded and somewhat rare external SuperDrive? If so, is the part number the same, but with a "-B" etc. extension and/or "SuperDrive" in the title? Or is it a different part number altogether? Theoretically they should be the same part number since they are the exact same drive. Also, would be interested in the copyright date to know exactly when the drive name change occurred.

 

[applefreak]

for this one ?

The FDHD External uses a similar case to the 3.5" External but the 800K mechanism has been upgraded to a 1.4M mechanism

Apple Technical Procedures

Apple FDHD Drive

pdf zipped

 

[Mac128]

Yup. That's the repair manual. Looks like the original 1989 FDHD issue as well. I was actually referring to the user manual. Either way, still looking for the SuperDrive branded manual, which corresponds to the later SuperDrive branded external case (which looks exactly like the one you pictured except it says SuperDrive instead of FDHD. But thanks for the link!

 

[Scott Baret]

A little insight on this drive/branding:

I think this debuted in August 1989 alongside the SE SuperDrive. Apple was aggressively pushing the SuperDrive at that point and was using the FDHD label on everything. My guess is that people didn't know exactly what it meant and may have thought the HD stood for "hard drive". SE SuperDrives started rolling off the line sometime in 1990 and stayed in production until 1991. I'd imagine the drives switched over by that point.

This drive was evidently in production for some time, especially since Apple IIs were still being sold into 1993, but was a slow seller since most Mac users had gone to one floppy, one hard drive by that point (and Apple IIs weren't exactly hot items in their final years, plus most who bought them seemed to spring for the more popular 5.25" drives). I get a feeling there was a lot of unused FDHD drive inventory, although any external 1.4MB drive (non-USB) is pretty rare.

I'm not sure if there would have been a second edition manual. I'm almost positive the SE SuperDrive had just one manual, which referred to it as the "Macintosh SE" but had the dithered photo on the front, not the standard color photo like the earlier manuals.

 

[Mac128]

Yeah, I don't think that the FDHD manual would have retained that name once the drive itself was re-branded. At a minimum, the name FDHD would have been replaced throughout the manual. Otherwise, I don't think there would have been any difference in the mechanism, or operation of the drive. Perhaps they switched from the auto-inject variety to the cheaper manual inject, but that would be about it. Maybe more details about using it with the Apple II? I'll have to look at my FDHD manual and see just how much it talks about the Apple II, for which it was almost exclusively marketed after the SE line was canned, and as you point out most, if not all Macs came with a hard drive. And only a few Macs retained an external floppy disk connector, most likely (particularly in the case of new Mac IIs) for backwards compatibility with 800K externals, and any external FDHD drives someone might have previously purchased. I would venture to say that if someone who bought the Mac Classic for $999 with a single disk drive, most likely opted to upgrade to a hard drive, either at purchase, or when the single drive wasn't enough, considering the relative cost of the ext SuperDrive. Let's face it the $999 configuration was strictly for marketing purposes only.

 

[Mac128]

OK, just checked the FDHD Manual. It is specific to the Macintosh, indicating the drive can only format Macintosh disks and MS-DOS disks, and requires System 6.0.

So, my guess here is the manual was revised to include the Apple II, most likely at the same time the name was changed to "SuperDrive".

However, it begs the question, when did the Apple II get the SuperDrive, and if not in 1990, were there more than one update to the manual after the name change?

Is there any chance the Apple II Had it's own custom SuperDrive manual separate from the Macintosh manual since it also required the instalation of a new card?