Apple III & Profile

From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca>
Date: Fri Aug 7 20:39:36 1998

Greetings,

I finally got around to trying the Profile hard drive someone gave me,
with my Apple III, but I can't get it to work. I haven't tried
formatting, but I wan't to leave that as a 'last resort', in case there's
something useful on the drive.

I opened up the drive when I first got it, to see what's inside. The
actual drive mechanism is a full-height 5.25" jobbie, and IIRC it's 5MB.
I don't remember who the manufacturer was.

I power up the drive first, and wait until the READY light stops blinking.
I have no Apple III docs, I just 'guessed' that that was the proper
procedure. I don't know if it is yet.

I then boot up the III with the SOS 1.3 Utilities disk. I've used the
configuration program to make .PROFILE active. The configuration file
reports the following:

item field value
  1 - Device Name................ .PROFILE
  2 - Device Type................ $D1 Block, Read, Write ( range 00..FF )
                                        Formatter present; NonRemovable
  3 - Device Subtype............. $02 ( range 00..FF )
  4 - Driver Status.............. ACTIVE
  5 - Comment
      Apple /// SOS Profile Driver (C) Copyright 1981, Apple Computer Inc.
  6 - Configuration Block data

      Slot Number................ 04
      Unit Number................ $00
      Manufacturer ID............ $0001 Apple
      Block Count................ $2600 (9728)
      Version ID................. 1.00

I can't edit the configuration block data, though. If I go down to item 6
and hit RETURN, I get to the "Edit Driver Configuration Block" screen,
which looks like it should have at least 16 values on it. It only
displays "[FF]" at location 00, though, and although it says I can use
arrows to go to other values, the arrows don't do anything.

If I go to the "Device handling commands" section from the main menu, and
attempt to Verify .PROFILE, the READY light on the Profile blinks, there
is a clicking noise, and the READY light goes out. The program reports
".profile - Volume not found". The READY light stays out for a while,
blinks a few times, then comes back on and stays on.

If I go to "List devices configured", it pauses when it gets to .PROFILE,
and reports "(no directory)", and the drive behaves exactly as with
Verify.

It's possible the drive just needs to be formatted, but as I said, I don't
want to do that until I'm sure there's nothing salvageable on it.

I'm not even sure I've got the cabling right. I assumed it takes a
straight-through 25-pin cable from the ProFile controller to the drive
unit. No twists or turns along the way?

Also, I've got two Profile controllers, one in slot 3 and one in slot 4.
I coulfn't get it to work at all from the one in slot 3, simply because it
seems to have been preconfigured to look at slot 4.

Any helpful info will be appreciated.

Hopefully I don't get frustrated and try formatting the unit before I get
a reply. :)


Doug Spence
ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
Received on Fri Aug 07 1998 - 20:39:36 BST

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