mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (12/04/89)
Greetings, I posted this question to comp.sys.mac yesterday, and it seems to have been swallowed. Since it's really more relevant to this group, I'll post it here. Apologies if you see it twice... I am about to complete the purchase of a IIx. It will have one FDHD, and I will be using an external LaCie hard disk. What I'm wondering is, is it possible to use an 800K floppy with this machine? I really don't want to spring for another FDHD ($375 + install!), and I thought that an Apple internal 800K ($230+) or, even better, the Cutting Edge external 800K ($140) would suit my needs adequately. So, first: can the IIx use an 800K drive at all? If so, I think I'd really rather do the external (since the Cutting Edge is INEXPENSIVE). However, since the IIx apparently doesn't have an external floppy drive connector, I would need a cable to go from the internal connection and provide me with the apropriate socket for the drive. Has anyone had any experience with using an 800K drive on a IIx? Does anyone know where I can either purchase a cable at a reasonable price, or get a pin diagram so I can make my own? Has anyone used the Cutting Edge? Finally, do FDHD drives ever cause difficulty for 800K disks? I used some of my disks (formatted on my Plus) in a IIx, and then the II that I took them to wouldn't recognize them. I didn't reformat or anything, just used them. The II has never given any further problems, so I figure it must have been the IIx (which I've been unable to use since then, so I couldn't check). Thanks in advance, --Mike
rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman) (12/04/89)
In article <1148@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes: > [Lots of questions I can't answer, followed by:] > > Finally, do FDHD drives ever cause difficulty for 800K disks? I used some >of my disks (formatted on my Plus) in a IIx, and then the II that I took them >to wouldn't recognize them. I didn't reformat or anything, just used them. The >II has never given any further problems, so I figure it must have been the IIx >(which I've been unable to use since then, so I couldn't check). > >Thanks in advance, > >--Mike My experience is that the FDHD is much less than 100% successful with 800K disks. I've had a lot of "Disk Write Error, File Skipped" messages when trying to copy files onto an 800K floppy in SE/30. They occur especially when the file being copied would have almost filled the floppy. Sometimes retrying the operation is successful. Sometimes I've tried to reformat the floppy, and it's inevitably come up bad -- and after that it can't be reformatted on an 800K drive either. I had the drive replaced, but it didn't solve the problem. I've had the same problem with a IIcx at my office. Of course, maybe I just have lots and lots of bad floppies -- but I've seen more 800K floppies fail in six months with an FDHD than in 3 years with the 800K drive in a Plus. -john