30 Dec
2012
30 Dec
'12
3:54 p.m.
Hi Win,
It sound like the floppy you created from the image is good -- usually
you get the immediate "Retry" message if the III can't recognize the
disk at all. As long as you used the CFFA to create the disk from the
image, just as you would an Apple II disk, it should work.
From what I've experienced, what you're seeing
is usually (but not
always) one of two things:
1) The disk image you used to create the image has a driver installed
for a piece of hardware that isn't present in your system (i.e, a
ProFile drive) and SOS has loaded the driver and is waiting for the
peripheral to respond. SOS is supposed to be smart enough to realize
that hardware isn't there and move on with the loading process, but it
doesn't always work that way.
or 2) your drive needs to be adjusted. I have about two dozen Disk
III drives and every single one of them required a speed adjustment
before they would work when I acquired them. LMK if you need the
procedures for that.
- Mike
On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 8:01 PM, Win Heagy <wheagy at gmail.com> wrote:
Mike,
I read the relevant chapters and have a bit better understanding of the
Apple III...I think. I tried making an SOS disk today using my Apple IIe
and the CFFA3000 with some Apple III dsk images i found online. I used
ProDOS and was able to format the floppy and it appeared to copy the image
onto the floppy. At least it said it was successful, but when I tried
booting the III with it, the drive spun for about 3 seconds and then
stopped and nothing else happened...nothing on the display. Should it work
to copy a floppy like this using ProDOS on a IIe for use on a III? Is
there another utility that would be better suited to copy the disk?
Thanks,
Win
Unlike the II, which is relatively easy to configure to boot to any
(bootable) storage device in nearly any slot, the Apple III tries to
boot only from the internal floppy drive, and as Eric pointed out,
you'd have to roll your own ROM to change that behavior. The CFFA3000
works nicely in the III, but you lose the Drive ][ emulation
capability and you can't boot directly to it.
In the Apple III, everything is seen as a device and requires a driver
that SOS loads as it boots in order to be accessible to the system
during operation. You can't (easily) boot directly to the CFFA because
SOS requires a driver to be able to recognize it. Fortunately, SOS is
close enough to ProDOS that you can use the CFFA in an Apple II to
create floppies from the images you downloaded.
I'd suggest reading this PDF for more on how the III works:
http;//apple2scans.net/scans/manuals/3rd.party/OMHGYA3.pdf
It's the Osborne McGraw Hill Guide To Your Apply III. Pay special
attention to Chapters 3 and 4.
LMK if you have any questions about all this.
- Mike