Subject: Re: from 5.25 floppies to Macintosh
From: hlevinsn@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Hank Levinson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2.marketplace
Date: 28 Aug 1999 17:44:44 -0400
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Franklin Cacciutto <shadtree@earthlink.net> writes:

>I faced a similar problem some years ago. I have an Apple IIe, but used
>a IIgs, which has both a 5.25 inch floppy and a 3.5 inch floppy, to get
>my precious Appleworks IIe files onto 3.5 disks so that my Macintosh
>translators would be able to go to work on them and turn them into
>Clarisworks files. It worked.

>But I also happen to have an old Apple 3.5 inch disk drive! It looks
>like I could daisy chain it right onto my two Apple IIe 5.25 inch
>drives. But I have been afraid to try. Do you know if that can be done?
>If so, that may be a solution, too. Not a 5.25 inch drive for the
>Macintosh, but a 3.25 inch drive for the IIe.

>Please let me know if you have advice for me. Thanks!

Dear Franklin,

	There are two problems with what you propose:

		a) Unless you have special DOS such as RANA DOS, or
	           a "smartport", you may only hook two disk drives
                   to one slot of a IIe. CATALOG,D3 will give an
		   out-of-bounds error message.

		b) A 3.5" drive requires a special card on a IIe
		   with its own 65C02 chip. There is a UniDrive
		   card, only good for a UniDisk 3.5" drive, and
		   other third party 3.5" drive cards which work
		   for 3.5" drives other than the UniDrive. Such
		   cards are usually put in slot #5 of a IIe.
		   Commands like SAVE filename,S5,D1 or LOAD
		   filename,S6,D2 work just fine.

	There is really no simple (i.e. non-expensive) way to do what
you suggest with a IIe. An enhanced IIc will accept a 3.5" UniDrive
dasychained to a 5.25" (19-pin) drive. That machine, unlike a IIe, has
a smartport.

			Good luck!

			Dr. H. Levinson