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5.25 Drive fro Macintosh Classic?
Posted by: Pablooski on 2017-01-28 16:01:49
Hi everyone!
 
I would like to know if there is a 5.25 External drive for the Classic Macintosh that can be safely connected. I ask this because on the internet people says about of a major risk in connect to 5.25 unit of the Apple II in these machines.
 
  • "Never connect an Apple II 5.25″ floppy drive to the Mac’s floppy port. Doing so can ruin the floppy controller, meaning you can’t even use the internal drive any longer." http://lowendmac.com/1990/mac-classic/

 
I would also like to know if it is possible that these drives can read IBM / PC format disks. I have many 5.25 discs with word and excel files of my work that I would check and I want to know if it is possible to do it from my Macintosh Classic.
 
Thanks!
Posted by: Scott Squires on 2017-01-28 16:10:30
In general, Macintoshes cannot use 5.25" drives. There are a couple exceptions. The Apple IIe card and the PC card allow you to connect a 5.25" drive. Both are somewhat difficult to find and expensive. And neither will work with your Mac Classic.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 🙁

Posted by: Johnnya101 on 2017-01-28 16:11:13
I'm sure there are drives made for this, however as everyone knows, DO NOT use the II drives. They are completley different things than mac drives.

I've personally never seen one however.

Posted by: Pablooski on 2017-01-28 18:38:23
Thanks guys. Well... no 5.25 drive for now...  :-/

Posted by: Gorgonops on 2017-01-28 19:33:56
As already noted, Apple sold an add-on card and 360k floppy drive capable of reading DOS disks for a number of Mac models, but the Classic is not one of them, alas.

The one remotely common hardware solution that could work on your machine was something like the DaynaFile SCSI floppy drive. They're not exactly thick on the ground today, though.

https://books.google.com/books?id=KU7dCBpP7fsC&lpg=PA128&ots=_e_5usQMWi&dq=daynafile%20floppy&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q=daynafile%20floppy&f=false

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