Activating a second Disk ][ (Apple //e)

[HunterCupp]

Hello, all.

I am having a hard time figuring out how to activate the second disk drive in my Apple //e. Is there a command for it? (I know that PR#6 will activate drive 1) I don't see the point in having a second disk drive without being able to activate it. That's why I'm slightly confused.

Thanks,
-Hunter

 

[David Schmidt]

Hi, Hunter -

You don't/can't boot from a second disk drive. But once you have booted from drive 1, you can start to manipulate drive 2 - you just need a ",D2" suffix on most commands:
CATALOG,D2
SAVE HELLO,D2
RUN MYSUPERGAME,D2
and so on. Once you do the first command on D2, it will actually "stick" and continue to address the second drive unless you reset it with D1 somewhere:
CATALOG,D1
etc.

 

[HunterCupp]

Hi, Hunter -

You don't/can't boot from a second disk drive. But once you have booted from drive 1, you can start to manipulate drive 2 - you just need a ",D2" suffix on most commands:
CATALOG,D2
SAVE HELLO,D2
RUN MYSUPERGAME,D2
and so on. Once you do the first command on D2, it will actually "stick" and continue to address the second drive unless you reset it with D1 somewhere:
CATALOG,D1
etc.

David

Thanks a lot! It worked perfectly!

Thanks,
-Hunter

 

[zorinlynx]

Also, if you can get a second Disk ][ controller, you can put it into slot 5 and connect the second drive to it. Then you can boot from either drive by doing PR#6 or PR#5.

The machine will boot from the drive in the highest numbered slot, so 6 will be default.

I had my system set up like this for a long time in the 90s because it was more convenient to be able to boot from the second drive and I had a spare Disk ][ controller.