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IIGS external 3 1/2 drive on normal compact mac?
- Thread starter JRL
- Start date
One of the best places to look for info on early Apple external floppy drives is: http://www.vintagemacworld.com/drives.html.
ANY of the Apple 800K drives will work fine on a Mac.
Plugging the UniDisk into the Mac will not harm either. It is compatible if you open it up, unplug the "smart" board from the drive and connect the external cable connector directly into the drive header.
(See this for more info http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=44706#44706)
You probably have the Apple 3.5" Drive in any event.
FYI, there is nothing you could do with a 5.25" drive connected to the Mac FDD port anyway, even if it didn't fry your system.
The 5.25" drive is only useful for a Mac if you've got an LC with an Apple IIe card.
Another tip: if you got drives from systems with two drives, use the one marked drive 2. It likely hasn't been used much and will be less worn out.
3.5" drives, when next to 5.25" drives, are usually used less on academic environment IIGS machines simply because schools had a lot more software on the 5.25" disks. In fact, I've seen IIGS machines being used exclusively with 5.25" disks in schools.
Another tip: if you got drives from systems with two drives, use the one marked drive 2. It likely hasn't been used much and will be less worn out.
3.5" drives, when next to 5.25" drives, are usually used less on academic environment IIGS machines simply because schools had a lot more software on the 5.25" disks. In fact, I've seen IIGS machines being used exclusively with 5.25" disks in schools.
The A9M0106 3.5" External drive pops up on ebay in the UK occasionally. It is the best drive to have around if you have a mixed collection of old Macs and a IIgs. If you can't buy one, make one from a recycled 800KB drive, ribbon cable and ribbon <--> hacked D-19 male connector.
For the IIgs, assuming that you have enough RAM, you only need one 3.5" drive and one 5.25" drive (and a hacked Disk ][ is good enough). Disk copies on single drive systems using GS/OS are pretty quick *if you have RAM*.
For the IIgs, assuming that you have enough RAM, you only need one 3.5" drive and one 5.25" drive (and a hacked Disk ][ is good enough). Disk copies on single drive systems using GS/OS are pretty quick *if you have RAM*.
I have a 1MB expansion in addition to the 256K built-in so single drive copying is no problem. There are times when multiple drives would be useful though, especially whilst running GS/OS and another application. Maybe it's time for me to cough up the cash and get myself a CFFA card...
