A IIGS 3.5 Drive

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k4lmp's picture
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A IIGS 3.5 Drive

So, I got my A IIGS today. It has 5.25, and 3.5 drives. I don't have any GS software yet, as I have to make an ADTPro cable. I used an ADTPro 5.25 floppy I have, to try to format the 3.5, and it won't even list it under volumes. I tried a PRODOS User Disk, and it also doesn't show up there. The drive will run, and the LED will light when I do a list volumes, but doesn't show up in the list. Is this drive not supported by the floppies I'm booting from, or is the drive bad. It is labeled 1 on the front, and I have it tied to the GS, with the 5.25 daisy chained off of it, the 5.25 being labeled 2. The 5.25 shows up as slot 6 disk 1, even though the 3.5 is in the chain, and it cycles when I do a volume list. It never shows up. On a lighter note, the GS had a 1 meg ram expansion already installed...Great!

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

http://www.applefritter.com/content/apple-iigs-floppy-disk-questions#comment-63421

A 5-1/4" drive always goes last in a daisy chain. They terminate a signal the 3-1/2" drive needs.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

Well, I have it that way, the 3.5 is connected straight to the GS, and then the 5.25 is connected to the 3.5 and ends the chain. Like I said, if I do a list volumes, it will run the 3.5, but doesn't see any volumes, or show the drive as present in the chain. It lists the 5.25 as drive 1 and doesn't list the 3.5. Will the PRODOS and ADTPro disks made on a regular Apple IIe be able to recognize the 800K 3.5? If so, then I would say my drive is bad, even though I see the GS run the drive, and the LED light up.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

Ok, I guess I misunderstood the chaining language you had at first. So, when you're running these tests - do you have an actual DD/720k floppy (even unformatted) in the drive? ADTPro won't show it to you unless there's media in the drive.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

Hello k4lmp,
it also would be useful to issue the model-no. from the bottom of the 3.5 drive. Reason: some people make mistake and think a drive to be for the Apple II series while it is in fact for the Mac and some 3rd party company made also drives which might be mixed up. To be sure that we are all talking about same - the model-no. would be obligatory.
sincerely speedyG

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

So, I got my A IIGS today. It has 5.25, and 3.5 drives. I don't have any GS software yet, as I have to make an ADTPro cable. I used an ADTPro 5.25 floppy I have, to try to format the 3.5, and it won't even list it under volumes. I tried a PRODOS User Disk, and it also doesn't show up there. The drive will run, and the LED will light when I do a list volumes, but doesn't show up in the list. Is this drive not supported by the floppies I'm booting from, or is the drive bad. It is labeled 1 on the front, and I have it tied to the GS, with the 5.25 daisy chained off of it, the 5.25 being labeled 2. The 5.25 shows up as slot 6 disk 1, even though the 3.5 is in the chain, and it cycles when I do a volume list. It never shows up. On a lighter note, the GS had a 1 meg ram expansion already installed...Great!

If the 3.5 drive will light up and you hear it spin when you list the drives in ADTPro then your only problem is that you don't have a disk in the drive. As David mentioned get some old IBM 720k disks, or old Mac 800k disks if you can find them, and put the disk in the 3.5 drive. Then use the (F)ormat selection on the main menu of your 5.25 ADTPro disk to format it. Even though you have the 5.25 daisy chained to the 3.5 the 5.25 will always show up as slot 6 drive 1 since that goes back to the original apple II with the 5.25 drive controller card being in slot 6.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

It is a model A9M0106 drive. I did have a floppy disk in the drive, but I will try another one.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

Hello k4lmp,
model-no. is correct.... so the mistake is as explained a bad or missing disk or even worse a bad drive.....
in some cases if disk was formatted with MS-DOS it helps to wipe several times with a very strong magnet several times in different directions on top of the disk ( you can leave the metalslidingdoor of the disk closed ) to erase old formatting....
sincerely speedyG

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

OK, so a little more info. I found a part of one of the boards that was broken. A little soldering later, and the drive works. BUT, instead of showing up as slot 6 drive 1, it shows up as slot 5 drive 1. I have a ram expansion in the unit, what should it show up in? I think it was showing up in slot 5 when the 3.5 drive wasn't recognized. Slot 5 is set up by default as a 'smart card'. I managed to get the 3.5 drive formatted, as slot 5 drive 1. Shouldn't it be slot 6 drive 1, and the 5.25 be slot 6 drive 2? Totally confused here. Thanks.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

Good job getting it pieced back together. 3-1/2" drives are mapped to slot 5, and 5-1/4" drives are mapped to slot 6. So it's behaving just as expected. As for the memory, maybe you're referring to the RAM drive that gets created? That's the only sense in which a RAM card would show up as a slot.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

Right, I am talking about the RAM drive. I have a 1M RAM card installed. I thought it was showing up as slot 5, but it looks like that was my 3.5. I am setting the RAM drive to a maximum of 1024, but my battery is dead, so it resets to default when restarted, which is 0 KB. I am going to put a new (external) battery on the GS. Well, it looks like it is working as it should. Now to get my serial cable wired, so I can transfer a GS operating system. Thanks for all the help, and I'm sure I'll have more questions.

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Re: A IIGS 3.5 Drive

hello k4lmp,
never mind posting questions....
that´s what the community is for:
sharing infos....
it´s nobodys advantage keeping the infos by oneself and undertaking them.....
sincerely speedyG

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