All about Apple PC 5.25" Drive (A9M0110)

[slomacuser]

The Apple PC 5.25 Drive may be used with a Macintosh® SE or Macintosh II to transfer data between 5.25-inch MS-DOS®-formatted disks and 3.5-inch Macintosh-formatted disks.



What you need to use it:
• A file transfer program such as Apple File Exchange.



• One of the following expansion cards:

- Macintosh SE-Bus PC Card, the MS-DOS disk drive controller for the Macintosh SE.



- Macintosh II PC Card, the MS-DOS disk drive controller for the Macintosh II.



- A third-party expansion card that is designed to operate with the Apple PC 5.25 Drive.

According to Apple, the drive and controller cards are not compatible with Macs with FDHD ROMs. source

Available Documents:
- Apple service manual
- Technical procedures
- PC 5.25 drive Product info
- Macintosh II PC drive card product info
- Macintosh SE-bus PC drive card product info
- Macworld February 1988 - Review

Missing:
- Apple PC Drive 5.25 Owners manual pic

Testing the card:
The MacTest™ SE and MacTest™ II programs test an Apple PC 5.25 Drive and an Apple disk drive controller card at the same time. If the system you are testing uses a non-Apple disk drive controller card, replace it with an Apple card before testing.

CAUTION: Do not install more than one Macintosh II PC Card in the Macintosh II. The power supply was not designed for two of these cards and could be damaged.

 

[slomacuser]

My own testing.

Macintosh SE, 4 MB, 20 HD, System 6.0.5, PC card, PC disk drive
- Apple File Exchange - WORKS - Utilities disk #2
- DOS Mounter 4.1 - WORKS

- DOS Mounter Plus 4.0 - system errors
- PC Soft 2.5 - does not recognise the drives

Macintosh SE, 4 MB, 20 HD, System 7.0.1, PC card, PC disk drive
- DOS Mounter 4.1 - WORKS

- DOS Mounter 4.0 - system errors

Macintosh IIci, 16 MB, 500 HD, System 6.0.5, PC card, PC disk drive
- Apple File Exchange - WORKS
- PC Soft 1.3 - WORKS

- DOS Mounter 4.1 - system errors
- DOS Mounter Plus 4.0 - system errors
- DOS Mounter 1.2 - needs personalization (needs original disk)
- DOS Mounter 3.0 - needs personalization (needs original disk)
- AccessPC 2.0 - does not recognise the drive

 

[slomacuser]

@RetroTheory you can post yours testings/pictures too

 

[RetroTheory]

Great info.
Thanks again for the Dos Mounter tip. I am not sure why it works on my IIci and not on yours.

 

[RetroTheory]

Here are a few shots one with a DOS formatted floppy mounted in finder with Dos Mounter



Formatting a bootable 5.25" floppy from SoftPC


Booting SoftPC from 5.25" Floppy

 

[slomacuser]

Hm, you can copy files from the disk to hd and back? I have sys 6.0.5, you have 6.0.8? I should try that

 

[mg.man]

Booting SoftPC from 5.25" Floppy

Now I'm wishing I went for that PC Drive Card @slomacuser offered... Oh well, maybe another will come along...

 

[RetroTheory]

Hm, you can copy files from the disk to hd and back? I have sys 6.0.5, you have 6.0.8? I should try that

Yes, but only with PC formatted disks, not formatted with Dos Mounter. If I format the disk in a real PC or SoftPC I can copy files , but if I ms-dos format a disk with DOS Mounter it just hangs when I copy a file.

 

[RetroTheory]

Did a little disassembly on the Apple 5.25" PC Drive and it turns out its a near standard Panasonic JU-455-5 360K floppy drive.
Pinout attached. Drive is set at DS0.

Booting SoftPC using a Gotek Floppy emulator connected to the PC Drive Card.