I noticed that
( I looked a 3 Disk II's that my school had, and they all
had the grooved disc). I don't have the drive anymore (never was able to
get it to work), but All I really remember is the round cable, the red
apple (it was unusual), and the Disk II-type black front. If I remember
correctly, the case was black, too. I don't remember a data cable (at
AH HA!
I was just going to suggest that perhaps you had a Bell & Howell
drive and perhaps the internal mechanism on that model was different. I
think Kai has some black Disk ]['s handy that he can perhaps check on for
us.
The situation is complicated by the large number of "Disk ][ clones"
that were produced in the early 80's. From personal experience and
advertisements, I'd say there were at least 30 different clones at the
time. Most of them used very different-looking, often half-height, 5.25"
drives, but many used the same drive mechanics as a real Disk ][ and
had case designs almost exactly like a real Disk ]['s. The only real
way to tell in this case whether you're dealing with a clone or not
is to look for an Apple sticker on the box and/or the Apple legend on
the drive's PC board. (While some of the clone makers also stole
Apple's PC board layout, I've never seen any that went so far as to
steal Apple's copyright and part number!)
Tim.