From: nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2,comp.answers,news.answers Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Followup-To: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Apple II & Flopticals Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Archive-name: apple2/floptical Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: Mar 1 1997 Version: 1.1 URL: http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/floptical.html Mini-FAQ (frequently asked questions): floptical and the //'s Disclaimer Copyright (c) 1993-96, by Frank M. Lin, Nathan Mates All rights reserved. Feel free to distribute original copies of this to anywhere you think it might be of help. However, I'd like to keep a master version of this document available at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/zip.html, so I'd much appreciate it if you made links to this page than duplicating it. Please do not modify this FAQ. Let me know (send email to nathan@visi.com) if any information is incorrect and/or misleading. _________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1. Which Apple //'s can use the floptical? 2. Which RamFAST ROM version do I need? 3. Where can I buy the latest RamFAST ROM's? 4. Which drivers do I need for the Apple SCSI cards? 5. Where can I get Richard Bennett's freeware drivers? _________________________________________________________________ Which Apple //'s can use the floptical? With the Apple //gs, you can use the Apple SCSI card rev. C, Apple High-Speed SCSI card, or RamFAST SCSI card. With the //gs, you can use the floptical to read and write: 720k MFM formated disks (usually MS-DOS) 1440k MFM formatted disks (usually MS-DOS) ~21mb VHD disks (like a SCSI device) With the //e, you can only use RamFAST. I believe you can only use it as a 21mb drive. A floptical will be a decent main drive, or a pretty good backup media. _________________________________________________________________ Which RamFAST ROM version do I need? You need 3.0k or later to have floptical support, but some of them have bugs with the floptical support. So be sure to get the best version, 3.0.1e ROM. 3.0.1e fixes some floptical bugs, and also allows the mounting of ISO-9660 (high-sierra format) CD-ROMs. _________________________________________________________________ Where can I buy the latest RamFAST ROM's? Your best bet is to order from Sequential Systems directly at: Sequential Systems, Inc. 1200 Diamond Circle Lafayette, Colorado 80026 sales: (800) 759-4549 customer service: (800) 999-1717 Be sure to specify for rev. C or rev D. RamFAST, and if you have a //e or //gs. _________________________________________________________________ Which drivers do I need for the Apple SCSI cards? For rev. C or High-Speed, you can use Richard Bennett's freeware drivers. If you bought the floptical drive from Tulin, they also come with Tulin's drivers. Latest version of Richard's drivers is 1.0.1. _________________________________________________________________ Where can I get Richard Bennett's freeware drivers? It is available for FTP on apple2.caltech.edu. If you have problems locating it and/or no FTP access, mail me, and I'll post to comp.binaries.apple2 or send you a binscii mail. _________________________________________________________________ Last updated: 01-22-94 minor corrections 12-24-93 first release Original author credits. Please note that these addresses are valid, and as Frank M. Lin has left the Apple II scene, do not contact him any more than necessary Internet: fmlin@netcom.com OggNet: Capsule, user #6 @ House of Games FutureNet: Capsule, user #9 @ Boycot BBS (#9@#8) IRC: potty, gogo