I have a Macintosh SE that is setup specifically to transfer files over to ProDOS disks (3.5" low density) that I put into its connected low-density drive. It seems few Macintosh machines have the option to have these drives attached to them, so I've always used this SE to do the job. When the files are copied, I use them on my Apple IIgs.
I have had the SE in storage for about a year, and upon taking it out to use it again, found that I am nowhere near as patient with its lack of speed as I used to be. That, and its hard disc drive has begun to have problems.
I am curious to find out what the most recent Macintosh machine is that can have low-density 3.5" disk drives attached to it. Maybe I should "upgrade" for this process so I have a quicker machine to act as transport.
Is there possibly a way to buy an adaptor of some kind that would allow me to use the low-density 3.5" external disk drives with, say, my Performa 6300CD? I doubt it, but it's worth it to ask. I know the IIgs supposedly has a SuperDrive card, but that kind of purchase is too expensive for me.
Any info helpful.
If you've got a IIci, it's got the floppy connector and can run OSes from 6 to 8.1.
dan k
Do you mean low density, as in the regular 800k disks, or the older 400k single-sided disks? Nearly any superdrive 68k Mac should read/write the 800k disks.
But these aren't 800kb Mac disks I'm talking about, they're 800kb ProDOS disks for the Apple IIgs. I figured the SuperDrive would have problems identifying a ProDOS disk and working with it via other utilities. Any truth to this, or am I nuts?
Bear with me, too, as I'm a 8-bit Apple II and IBM-PC user. I have a few Macs, but I never got too familiar with them, so these issues are ones I know little about.
Stepping back a pace or two, to the portion of Jon's response quoted by you ...
If you place a 2DD diskette into the Superdrive (auto-inject, able to format/read/write 400kB, 800kB and 1.4MB diskettes) of any 68k Mac, from Special::Erase Disk::Format you can choose ProDOS 800K, which is what you were seeking.
If you wish to write to the formatted diskettes, one means is to use an Apple IIe card in the LC PDS slot of any Mac (including Colour Classic) that has one. The cards are now fetching USD40 on eBay, whereas they were USD10 two years ago. The card would have other advantages, too.
DE
If you wish to write to the formatted diskettes, one means is to use an Apple IIe card in the LC PDS slot of any Mac (including Colour Classic) that has one. The cards are now fetching USD40 on eBay, whereas they were USD10 two years ago. The card would have other advantages, too.
--this is terrific advice, I bought one of these cards and installed it into an old Quadra 605 I had lying around. I used a IIe 5 1/4 inch drive with it to look at all my old apple IIe basic stuff from college. Makes a IIe within Mac OS a simple and very fun thing to play around with. here is a link to the card, for sale on ebay: http://tinyurl.com/btsuz
dvsjr
Thanks for the info. I have an LCIII complete with the Apple IIe card, so I guess I'm good to go.
As I said, I really only use the Macintosh machines I have to communicate with and write disks for the 8-bit and 16-bit Apple II machines.
You could always upgrade your SE with an SE/30 motherboard. They're cheap.