22 Sep
2003
22 Sep
'03
12:43 p.m.
"peter tremewen" <ptremewe(a)bigpond.net.au> asks:
Is it possibl;e to modify a standard IBM 3.5 inch FDD
to
work with the apple?? Yes, I understand it would be a serious
modification.
Has anyonme heard of it being done?? I understand the Apple II uses a
special drive interface, can this be conected up to the 3.5 inch drive
hardware and be used to drive them?? It's just so much easier to obtain
3.5
inch disks nowdays that a bit of fiddling around seems worth it.
It's basically not possible. The Apple interface is not even
similar to the industry-standard interface. And the Apple requires
that 3.5-inch drives have a variable-speed motor, run at different
speeds for different track groups.
If you *must* connect a standard 3.5-inch floppy drive to a PC, there
are third-party interface cards that can do it. They work with Prodos
etc., but not with any software that expects direct control over the
drive mechanism (e.g., copy protection).
Can't you get Apple 3.5 drives at a flea market or something?