Adam Takessian
This article is adapted from a posting by Adam Takessian to the
Vintage Macs email list.
I would like very much to help other compact Mac users to know
more about the AE HD+, because before I bought mine, the
information on the web was extremely limited, scattered across
several different pages, sometimes inaccurate and overall
mysteriously misleading.
After so much talk on the Classic Macs list about the Applied
Engineering AE HD+, I finally got one at an Apple Mac Users Group
flea market - $5 near mint, original box, manual, install disk and
registration card. Thank you Apple Mac Users Groups!
I've heard of the AE HD+ selling for as much as $125, and I saw
another vendor at the same flea market selling it for $75. I've
also heard of Que Computers selling it for $99; however, when I
called Que last fall, no one there knew anything about the AE HD+,
and I was asked to call back three days in a row to talk to a
variety of people who all worked different shifts and none had a
clue.
The AE HD+ can read, write, and format 1.4 MB floppies on 800 KB
floppy based compact Macs (the 512Ke,
Plus, and pre-FDHD
SE). The Mac II requires an
optional (not included) AE floppy interface to use the HD+, since
the Mac II case does not have a built-in external floppy
connector.
It's very convenient to be able to read, write, and format Mac
and PC 1.4 MB floppies on my Mac Plus. Now I can easily transfer
files via floppy from a PC to my Mac Plus, as well as use 1.4 MB
Mac disk images.
I have had no compatibility problems with the AE HD+ extension
with System 6.0.7 or System 7.5.5.
But the AE HD+ is not exactly what I expected. A major drawback
is that the AE HD+ cannot be the startup disk; not as a 1.4
MB floppy and not even as an 800 KB floppy. Forget having a 1.4 MB
100% genuine Apple authorized System 7 startup floppy. You can't
startup an 800 KB floppy-based Mac with the AE HD+. The ROM chips
on the Mac's motherboard only recognize 800 KB floppy drives as the
startup drive. And since the AE HD+ extension is not in ROM, the
Mac just sits there with a flashing question mark looking for a
startup disk in an 800 KB drive.
The other drawback with the AE HD+, contrary to other comments
I've read, is that the AE HD+ does not function as an 800 KB
floppy without the AE HD+ extension. You've got to have the AE
HD+ extension to use the drive even as an 800 KB floppy drive. To
use the AE HD+ you must startup off another drive that contains the
AE HD+ extension, then you can use the AE HD+ to read, write, and
format - that's it.
If you've already got an external 800 KB floppy, you probably
won't want to discard it, because there are times when you're
working solely off floppies, that even the 32 KB AE HD+ extension
will be one extension too many in your startup floppy System Folder
- and without that extension, you won't be able to use the AE
HD+.
For $5, it's an okay deal for compact Mac fans. But just to be
able to read, write, and format a 1.4 MB floppy for anything more
than $30 in my opinion is not cost effective. At the same Apple Mac
Users Group flea market the Mac LC was going for $5, Mac IIcx for
$10, and 13" Apple RGB for $25. At those prices you could overcome
all the limitations of an 800 KB floppy Mac and solve the problems
of lack of Color QuickDraw at the same time and save up to $100 --
and keep your compact Mac and have a newer Mac as well and set up
an AppleTalk network!
For the Control Panel, visit The Mac Driver Museum, Disk, CD-ROM
Drivers, Applied Engineering AE HD+ v1.2 (78 KB file, 800 KB
disk image)
Go to 512Ke,
Plus, or SE.
