Description: Apple IIGS: Connecting Disk Drives
Header: Apple IIGS: Connecting Disk Drives


 This article last reviewed: 22 September 1986

 The Apple IIGS is capable of using all drives available for the Apple IIe, as
 well as drives built for the Apple IIGS, including the Disk II, Duodisk,
 Unidisk, Unidisk 3.5, Profile, Apple 3.5 Drive, Apple 5.25 Drive, and SCSI-20.
 Some of these drives may be plugged directly into the SmartPort on the back of
 the IIGS, while others require an interface card in one of the expansion I/O
 slots.

 The following drives may be plugged into the SmartPort's DB-19 connector:
  -- one Duodisk
  -- two Unidisk 5.25 drives
  -- two Unidisk 3.5 drives
  -- two Apple 5.25 drives
  -- two Apple 3.5 drives

 Only under Prodos 16 may a combination of up to six drives be daisy-chained to
 the SmartPort. The chain MUST occur in the order given below and may include
 up to two (excepting the DuoDisk) in each of the following three categories:

  -- nearest to IIGS (maximum of two):
       1. Apple 3.5 Drives
       2. Unidisk 3.5 drives

  -- farthest from IIGS (maximum of two):
       3. 5.25 disk drives: Disk II's, Unidisk 5.25 drives, Apple 5.25 drives
          or ONE Duodisk drive

 Under Prodos 8 (also known as Prodos 1.2), four drives are accessible through
 the SmartPort. These may be a combination of Apple 3.5 drives, Unidisk 3.5
 drives, a RAM disk, and a ROM disk, under the same order restrictions as
 above.

 The SmartPort is mapped to slot 5, so drives connected directly to the port
 are
 accessed as slot 5, drive 1 and slot 5, drive 2. When more than two drives are
 used under Prodos 8, or if the RAM disk is active, "phantom slots" are
 assigned.

 To be used on the Apple IIGS, the Disk II requires a Disk II Controller Card,
 just as on the Apple II or Apple IIe. The drive may be accessed through the
 slot used for the card, most likely slot 6, in which case the two possible
 drives are referred to as slot 6, drive 1 and slot 6, drive 2.

 A SCSI Interface Card is needed to use the Apple Hard Disk 20SC on the
 Apple IIGS  A Profile Interface Card must be used with a 5 or 10 Megabyte
 Profile, accessible by referencing the slot where the interface card resides
 or by the ProFile's ProDOS pathname.

 The Apple IIGS control panel allows you to select the slot from which the
 computer will be booted, or you may choose to scan slots on bootup to find a
 device that is ready.



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