I apologize for being vague. I want to read a 3.5" Apple IIgs disk. That is my goal.
Subsidiarily, I was also curious if the Disk II controller was compatible with my other externals. Purely out of curiosity.
I am aware that the PC disk controller is not compatible with Apple II (or Mac). I was surprised it was able to successfully image and write Kaypro disks. I was also surprised I was able to use it to read a 1.44 mb Macintosh floppy [this was either on a USB 3.5" drive or an internal one; I forget]. The 5.25" disks were all read and written on a 1985 Compaq Plus 360 kb drive. So I figured perhaps I could image the Printshop disk for use in an emulator. I didn't realize my aim was so unclear. <snip>
...
So, not to be too hard on you, but I think the last paragraph there sort of underlines the problem; you keep switching gears between multiple subjects with no transitions. Just in the bit quoted above:
#1: I'd like to know how to image a 3.5" Apple IIgs disk for use in an emulator without a IIgs.
#2: Can external floppy drives for a IIgs work with the "Disk II" controller, the one that just has the internal 20 pin connectors, in a IIe? (These two subjects were hopelessly intertwined in the OP, and further complicated by not saying "an emulator" but specifically saying "KEGS".)
#3. That third quoted paragraph: You referencing making disk images for a Kaypro... which is a completely different kettle of fish because a Kaypro uses an MFM floppy controller mostly compatible with the one IBM chose for the PC, also mention you were surprised that you could read a Macintosh 1.44 MB floppy drive with a PC floppy drive (Which actually isn't surprising; the "Superdrive" 1.44mb drive for Macs was specifically designed for PC compatibility and uses MFM formatting instead of GCR even when formatted with an HFS filesystem), and then I guess relate that seeing that those things could be done you thought you might be able to use PC hardware on a IIgs formatted disk?
So... yeah. Again, I guess it just seems you've been a little unclear on what you do or do not know and what you have to work with, and that leads to confusion and frustration and... bleah. I guess it happens to everybody.
Anyway, here's some baseline facts that might help clear it up all the confusion.
1: All of Apple's floppy systems prior to the 1.44MB Superdrive used a proprietary formatting system that IBM disk controllers can't handle. Thus without adding specialized controller hardware you can't read 143k 5.25" Apple II disks, 400 or 800k Mac disks, or 800k IIgs disks on a PC, period.
2: 800k IIgs disks use the same logical format as 800k Mac disks; therefore, the floppy drives in classic Beige Macintoshes *are* capable of reading them. (For the most part.)
The old Apple II internet FAQ mentions using DiskCopy to manipulate IIgs disks; if I had my Plus set up I could try it for you and see if it works there (I have a few IIgs floppies lying around), but it looks like that's a legitimate option for reading a IIgs disk unless it's nonstandard or copy protected in some way.
3: Switching back the IIe, unfortunately, again, you're SOL trying to create disk images on a PC, and unfortunately the 5.25" Apple II disk drives can't be used on a Mac even though the plug is compatible so you can't make a bootable disk that way either. (The one edge case is if you had a Macintosh LC-family machine with the IIe emulator card, but in that case the Apple drive connects directly to the IIe card, not the Mac's disk controller.) You pretty much *have* to use something like ADTPro... which sort of sucks if your IIe is broken in some way that prevents it.
Re: your IIe, I'd suggest if you haven't already asking about your broken cassette port on
Applefritter. There's a couple old crabby guys that might be able to tell you if it's fixable or not if you're willing to take a soldering iron to it.
