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From: rcs00455@zach.fit.edu (Kevin Anderson / Lazlo Hollyfeld)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: MS-DOS
Message-ID: <1935@winnie.fit.edu>
Date: 28 Jan 91 16:46:24 GMT
References: <7240@crash.cts.com> <11618@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Sender: usenet@winnie.fit.edu
Reply-To: rcs00455@zach.UUCP (Kevin Anderson / Lazlo)
Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, ACS, Melbourne, FL
Lines: 55

In article <11618@darkstar.ucsc.edu> unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes:
>
>In <7240@crash.cts.com> crew@pro-harvest.cts.com (Chris Wicklein) writes:
>>   I was happy with my understanding that the GS 3.5" drive could not
>>read/write MFM until it hit me that the PCT board from AE uses the GS 3.5"
>>drive for MS-DOS. Can someone please enlighten me?
>
>	I don't have a PC Transporter (and don't want one!), so the
>following is just going to be conjecture:
>
>	It doesn't actually read/write MFM.. It's simply a "pseudo" MS-DOS.
>

I was under a different impression, so I looked it up in my PCTransporter
manual (yes, I have one, though I don't hardly use it anymore.)
According to the manual,  

  "[the Apple 3.5" drive] is a unique drive because it is the first
   Apple drive capable of _directly_ reading and writting either
   GCR or MFM formats."

When you hook up an Apple 3.5" drive to the PCTransporter it will
read and write MFM formated disks.  The only thing the manual says
that you might have problems with is when you format a disk on the
Apple 3.5 and then try to use it in a true IBM machine.  They 
suggest that you format your 3.5's on a true IBM to be sure of media
compatibility. (I haven't ever tried this, I only have one 3.5, but
this is what the manual says).

Anyway this suggests that all you would need is some software (like
Apple File Exchange for the GS) to read and write IBM 720k disks.

Like I said, this is what I thought and what the manual says, but I 
haven't tried it.

>	In theory the same thing as UniDOS and AmDOS (etc), the "DOS 3.3"
>for 3.5" drives..  To programs that don't read/write at the block level,
>they work fine in their ignorant assumption that they're running off of a
>5.25" drive..

This is how the PCTransporter writes MS-DOS to Apple drives and my
hard drive hooked up to the Apple, it writes MS-DOS volumes as a
ProDos file.
 
>(It sucks how a bunch of old file games explicitly have
>slot 6 in their program and thus can't be put on a 3.5" disk w/out major
>hacking)

Yea, I hate that too.....

>-- 
>/Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\
>\WRITE TO ORIGIN ABOUT ULTIMA VI //e and IIGS! Mail me for addresses, & info. / 
Kevin Anderson
rcs00455@zach.fit.edu