I have the Disk Controller II inserted into my socket 6 (using ROM 1 for my Apple IIgs). When I turn the computer on, the disk drive doesn't perform any sort of activity at all, however the second I turn off my Apple II gs, I see a little dim flashing light on the Disk Drive II (very fast). That means there is electricity going to the disk drive but for some reason my Apple II gs doesn't detect it. Anyone could help me here? Thanks in advance.
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Using Disk Controller II on my Apple II gs...
- Thread starter foody
- Start date
magnusfalkirk
Well-known member
Press Control-Open Apple-Escape, all at the same time. Use the up arrow key to highlight "Control Panel" and press return. When you see the Control Panel use the arrow key to move up to "Slots" and press return. Look at the bottom of the screen to see which slot is set as the "Startup" slot. If it is set to "Scan" or "Slot 6" then there is a problem with either your drive or the drive controller card. If it isn't set to "Scan", or Slot 6, then use the up arrow to highlight "Startup"and then either the right or left arrow key to set it to slot 6, or Scan. Press return, then scroll down to "Quit" and press return. Scroll down to Quit again and press return to get back to the main screen. Turn your GS off and then back on, if you have a disk in the drive it should start the drive up and boot the disk.
Dean
magnusfalkirk
Well-known member
Yeah, I think your right, I did forget that. It's been a while since I actually used a disk II controller card in my GS. [
] ]'>Dean
You guys don't understand how sexy the Disk II controller is AND THE DISK DRIVE II. Just thinking about them or using them make my head swim so hard I lose total balance, GS with Disk Drive II is the ultimate nostalgia and complete retro fetish. I love the Apple II * sniff * I would do anything now to buy NEW Apple II games on my 5" disk.....
* SIGH *....the good old days :'(
* SIGH *....the good old days :'(
Scott Baret
Well-known member
The IIGS, if I recall, has its internal drive circuitry set for slot 6 by default. (So does the Apple IIc with its internal drive). This is because most people who bought the disk controllers for the II/II+/IIe put them in the sixth slot (if I recall the manual encouraged the use of that slot) and most programs had defaulted to slot 6 for disks by then (including, I believe, ProDOS).
If I were you I'd put it in a different slot. Your mileage may vary with reconfiguration, but I'd put it something else to minimize conflicts.
If I were you I'd put it in a different slot. Your mileage may vary with reconfiguration, but I'd put it something else to minimize conflicts.
magnusfalkirk
Well-known member
Go ahead and put it in slot 6 and then go to the control panel and set slot 6 to "Your Card", then make sure you set the Startup to slot 6 as well. If you try using it in any other slot your programs may not boot up since the software expects to boot from slot 6.
Dean
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magnusfalkirk
Well-known member
He won't have any conflicts with anything in the GS as long as he goes to the control panel and sets slot 6 to "Your Card" so that it will check the slot to see what is in there. Also if he sets the Startup Slot to 6 then it will automatically boot from the Disk II drive that he has hooked up to the controller card in the slot.
Since the majority of software expects to boot from slot 6 I'm not sure anything he tried to boot would run since it's expecting slot 6.
Dean
Dean
Scott Baret
Well-known member
My logic is because I was figuring the port would override the card in slot 6, but the procedure described will work. (I'm not as familiar with the IIGS as I'd like to be so I was unaware of that).
I suggested an alternate slot because I did that on a IIe once when I set up two floppy controllers (one for UniDisks/DuoDisks and the other for a Disk II). I had one of one drive and one of the other. I think I put one of them in slot 5 and used that as the second drive (which meant a lot of configuration on my part).
I suggested an alternate slot because I did that on a IIe once when I set up two floppy controllers (one for UniDisks/DuoDisks and the other for a Disk II). I had one of one drive and one of the other. I think I put one of them in slot 5 and used that as the second drive (which meant a lot of configuration on my part).
II2II
Well-known member
There are really three things to be concerned about here.
The first is the boot drive. The Apple II scans for a bootable device starting at slot 7 and working towards slot 0. From my recollections, it doesn't matter which slot the bootable device is in, though you'd probably want to put a hard drive in a higher slot and a RAM card in a lower numbered slot, with the floppy drive controller inbetween. (Quite often, RAM cards would look like disk controllers since the Apple II could only address 48k or 64k without bank switching.) Of course you can change the boot order with a special boot loader, or typing something like "PR#3" (where 3 is replaced with the slot number) at the BASIC prompt. If you're dumped into the machine language monitor, you would type something like "3^P" where "^P" is control-P. (No quotes in either case.)
The second thing to be concerned about is the matter of using a IIgs. The Apple II was originally designed to address eight additional devices. The IIgs couldn't really break compatiblity with the II, so it couldn't alter how the keyboard, display, joystick, speaker, or tape drive appeared to 8-bit software. It couldn't simply add devices either (because that would mess up the memory map), unless they appeared to be on a slot. Apple got around this by adding peripherals that were meant to be seen by 8-bit software to soft-expansion slots. In essence, the firmware would redirect requests for a certain slot somewhere else. This was fine for the Apple IIc because you didn't have any physical expansion slots, but it wouldn't work out for the IIgs. So Apple added additional functionality to the IIgs firmware that would allow you to put "My Card" into a slot, while disabling an expansion slot's function.
But once you consider those two things, it doesn't matter where you install a floppy controller. Well, unless you are using a particularly poorly written application. In most cases, it probably won't matter at all since I think it uses the default disk controller to save data (i.e. the one it booted from). In other cases, it will allow you to specify the slot and drive number. I don't think that ProDOS programs care at all, since they usually deal with paths and let the OS handle the rest.
The first is the boot drive. The Apple II scans for a bootable device starting at slot 7 and working towards slot 0. From my recollections, it doesn't matter which slot the bootable device is in, though you'd probably want to put a hard drive in a higher slot and a RAM card in a lower numbered slot, with the floppy drive controller inbetween. (Quite often, RAM cards would look like disk controllers since the Apple II could only address 48k or 64k without bank switching.) Of course you can change the boot order with a special boot loader, or typing something like "PR#3" (where 3 is replaced with the slot number) at the BASIC prompt. If you're dumped into the machine language monitor, you would type something like "3^P" where "^P" is control-P. (No quotes in either case.)
The second thing to be concerned about is the matter of using a IIgs. The Apple II was originally designed to address eight additional devices. The IIgs couldn't really break compatiblity with the II, so it couldn't alter how the keyboard, display, joystick, speaker, or tape drive appeared to 8-bit software. It couldn't simply add devices either (because that would mess up the memory map), unless they appeared to be on a slot. Apple got around this by adding peripherals that were meant to be seen by 8-bit software to soft-expansion slots. In essence, the firmware would redirect requests for a certain slot somewhere else. This was fine for the Apple IIc because you didn't have any physical expansion slots, but it wouldn't work out for the IIgs. So Apple added additional functionality to the IIgs firmware that would allow you to put "My Card" into a slot, while disabling an expansion slot's function.
But once you consider those two things, it doesn't matter where you install a floppy controller. Well, unless you are using a particularly poorly written application. In most cases, it probably won't matter at all since I think it uses the default disk controller to save data (i.e. the one it booted from). In other cases, it will allow you to specify the slot and drive number. I don't think that ProDOS programs care at all, since they usually deal with paths and let the OS handle the rest.
magnusfalkirk
Well-known member
The easiest way to do it, so that you understand what you're doing, is to simply put the Disk II controller card in Slot 6 in your GS and then switch Slot 6 in the Control Panel to "Your Card" and set the startup slot to slot 6, if all you're going to be doing is running software from the 5.25 disks.
Dean
Apple II Forever
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