campbellb@viking.UUCP (Brian Campbell) (09/08/89)
I have an opportunity to buy a used Macintosh disk drive where I work, with a 30 day maintaince guarentee. I may be able to buy a 800k model for $100, or a single sided 400K for $50. These seem like good prices, or at least reasonable ones for used equipment. My question is will either one work on the IIGS? The 400K drive is the one I particularly question. Both models were purchased during the 1985-1987 time frame. I understand that Macintosh peripherals are supposed to be compatible with IIGS peripherals, but could these older drive models pose any kind of compatibility problem? Or can I simply daisy chain one of these guys in with my 3.5 drive and my 2 5.25 drives. I understand that it would be inserted before the 5.25 drives in the chain. In fact, did the older Mac drives feature forward chaining? (Case in point: one of my 5.25 drives is a cheap third party drive which does not have a port for forward chaining. Hardly matters, since its the last drive on the chain.) Also, would four drives create a strain on my power supply? I also have an internal fan, a parallel card, AST digitizer card, and a fully populated Apple memory expansion card. A couple more cards in the future is not out of the question. I need a response prior to September 15. Many thanks to anyone who responds.
brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian Willoughby) (09/12/89)
In article <45803944.f759@viking.UUCP> campbellb@viking.UUCP (Brian Campbell) writes: >I have an opportunity to buy a used Macintosh disk drive [...] > >My question is will either one work on the IIGS? > I understand >that Macintosh peripherals are supposed to be compatible with >IIGS peripherals, but could these older drive models pose >any kind of compatibility problem? > In fact, did the older Mac drives >feature forward chaining? Aside from the fact that the Macintosh 800K drive will be about 6.4 times slower than an Apple 3.5 Drive - yes, they will work on the IIGS with a UDC card, and maybe even on the built-in SmartPort (haven't tried that). I have a UDC card on my Plus, and I originally purchased a Macintosh 800K drive (for $150) to use with my II. But after I noticed an extremely slow access time, I traded the Mac 800K drive with a Mac friend who had an Apple 3.5 Drive. He experienced no slowdown in access on his Mac when using my drive, but I am enjoying much prompter load times with the newer drive. Of course, all of this could be due to the software in the UDC ROMs, and Apple's GS SmartPort routines might access the Mac 800K as fast as the Mac does. Has anyone experimented with this? Here are my results using Copy II Plus on the two drives that I have owned. Times are given in minutes:seconds. Macintosh 800K drive Apple 3.5 Drive Format - 1:11 1:07 Verify - 10:10 1:36 Brian Willoughby UUCP: ...!{tikal, sun, uunet, elwood}!microsoft!brianw InterNet: microsoft!brianw@uunet.UU.NET or: microsoft!brianw@Sun.COM Bitnet brianw@microsoft.UUCP