External Floppy drive question

[thej]

I have an Apple 2C+ and I need an external 5.25 floppy for it.

Will the Apple 5.25 drives work?

I assuming they would but the 2c+ has a "smart" port. Would the 5.25 external use that or another port?

What uses teh "Smart" port?

 

Thanks in advance !!

[Arbee]

"SmartPort" is simply a disk drive port that's capable of daisy chaining, from an end-user POV. In the case of the IIc+ you can connect a UniDisk 3.5 or Apple 3.5 Drive followed by a 5.25 Drive and it'll work. Or you can just connect the 5.25 Drive directly if you have no other external drives.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Arbee

[Muzz73]

Yep... in the case of the //c+, you can use both the UniDisk and the platinum white drives from the IIgs.

 

I seem to think that the white drives had a better interleave ratio, making the drives faster, if memory serves me (which doesn't always happen these days). If someone can verify that, then it might be a good idea to keep an eye open for the platinum drives.

[Arbee]

On the IIgs at least that's right: the UniDisk 3.5 is fixed to 4:1 interleave since it's intended for use with base 1 MHz A2s. The Apple 3.5 Drive runs at 2:1 interleave on the IIgs. The IIc+ is an odd case so I don't know what interleave it uses/prefers for various drives.