14 May
1998
14 May
'98
12:56 a.m.
On Thu, 14 May 1998, John Ruschmeyer wrote:
<snip>
Bummer. I really wanted this drive to work with an 8-bit Apple. Oh well,
perhaps I'll find a Unidisk during next week's visit to the thrift shops.
:)
<snip>
Well, that's cool. I don't have a //gs yet, but as soon as I see one I'll
snarf it up (providing there isn't also a Sol 20, an Ohio Scientific
anything, and an IMSAI at the same place at the same time ;) ).
I did pick up another Apple peripheral at the same time, which may offer a
clue. It's a Modem 1200, Model A9M0301. The "clue", assuming it came
It's a
DS800 from DataSpace Corporation.
It physically plugs into my Apple //c, but I can't get the machine to
recognize it. The drive makes a noise when I power up the computer, but
that's all. Attempts to access S6, D2 or any other slot and drive
combination doesn't get anywhere.
Not surprising... the only 3.5" drive that will work with a //c is the
Unidisk (assuming you have a //c which will even work with one of
those). Is there
something I need to do to get my //c to recognize the drive? Or
is it intended for use on a //gs? Or did this company make a line of
dangerous Mac peripherals in an attempt to give the platform a bad name
for an overabundance of disk corruptions? ;)
//gs, definately. from the same source, is the 8-pin mini-DIN connector.
I don't know what
uses that kind of connection for the serial port.
Specifically, this drive appears to be a clone of the
Apple 3.5" Drive
(yes, that's its name). The Apple drive could work on either the //gs or
the Mac Plus, so this one is probably set up similarly.
Did the Apple 3.5" Drive have a mechanical eject? Fully manual, I mean,
not just a push-button that tells the motorized ejection mechanism to wake
up. Very un-Mac-like.
FYI, it will probably also work nicely on a Laser 128
or with the Laser
Universal Disk Controller (UDC) card for the Apple //.
Now if only I could find a disk controller for my Laser *3000*... ;)
<<<John>>>
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca