Disk-II
The Disk II arrived
The case and cable were filthy, and the rubber feet were super sticky, as if they were melting constantly. I cleaned the case and cable with isopropyl alcohol and temporarily added wire tape to the feet. I’ll replace them in the future.
The next step was to open it and peek inside. Good news! Everything appeared impeccably. Furthermore, the PCBs are in excellent condition, and there are no signs of capacitor corrosion.
Finally, I hooked it up to the computer, making sure the ribbon cable was correctly connected. Be cautious here. Unfortunately, because of the cable design, it is possible to connect it incorrectly and burn the drive.
Anyway, after typing the PR#6 command, I could verify it was at least spinning. But I will only know for sure if it is working properly when I receive the floppy disks I ordered a couple of days ago.
How to use both sides of a floppy on a Apple Drive II
The Apple Disk II drive is capable of reading only one side of a floppy disc. To use the other side of a Double Side (DS) disk, you need to flip it like a vinyl record. However, only flipping won’t do the trick.
All 5.25 floppy disks have a cutout on the right-hand side which tells the drive they can be written on. However, if you flip it, there will be no notch, and the drive will not be able to write on that side.
In the past, we had a tool called the Floppy Disk Notcher. But for inexplicable reasons, it became too expensive, and in the end, all you need to do is cut the disk in the right spot.
I use an X-ACTO knife, but if you’re careful, you can use a good pair of scissors as well. To tell where to cut, I use masking tape (see image below) and trace the line by flipping another disk on top of the one I’m cutting.