CiderPress Hardware Compatibility

CiderPress can access floppy disks, CD-ROMs, CF cards, hard drives, and other devices.  Whether or not it can do so on your system depends on the specific set of devices you have and what version of Windows you're running.

Most of this no longer applies and is only retained for historical reasons. Under Win2K and later, devices generally just work.

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General Rules

• 3.5" floppy disks
  • Requires a 3.5" floppy drive in your PC.  Works under both Win98/ME and Win2K/XP.
  • Only 720KB and 1.4MB PC-format floppy disks are supported.  Apple-format 800KB and 1.6MB disks are not, due to hardware differences.  Apple-format 140K 5.25" disks are not supported either.
• CompactFlash (CF) cards
  • Requires a CF card reader.
  • Your ability to read CF cards in CiderPress depends upon your exact model of reader and which operating system you're running.  Check the compatibility list, below.
  • Cards can use CFFA fixed-partition format or the custom partitioning from SHH Systeme's MicroDrive system.
  • CiderPress does not currently provide formatting or partitioning facilities.  You must prepare the card on the Apple II.
• CD-ROMs
  • Requires a CD-ROM drive.  Internal SCSI and IDE drives have been tested successfully under Win98/ME and Win2K/XP.  External USB CD-ROM drives may not work.
  • Works for Macintosh-partitioned CD-ROMs.
  • CiderPress does not record discs.
• Hard drives
  • Requires an appropriate interface to connect the hard drive, e.g. you need a SCSI adapter in your PC to read a SCSI hard drive.
  • Under Win2K/XP, the device must be recognized by the BIOS (SCSI or IDE; FireWire might work but has not been tested).
  • Under Win98/ME, it must be recognized by ASPI (usually SCSI only).  See Win98/ME notes below.
• ZIP drives
  • ZIP disks have been used successfully.  Make sure you partition the disk, e.g. with ADU or RamFAST utilities on the Apple II.  If you insert a blank disk in a IIgs, and let the Finder format it as a simple ProDOS volume, the disk won't work if you eject and re-insert it.
  • You may need drivers to use a ZIP drive on a PC.  SCSI drives will probably work without them.
  • Parallel-port ZIP drives do not work well with CiderPress under Win9x/ME.  You can read from them, but writing fails.
• Other devices
  • Insite SCSI "floptical" drives, made popular on the Apple II by Tulin, have been successfully tested under Win98 and Win2K.  No additional drivers needed on the PC.
  • Tape drives are not supported.
• Win2K/XP
  • You need "administrator" privileges to access devices other than floppy disk drives.  This is a general OS limitation on low-level access to devices.
• Win98/ME
  • Access to CD-ROM drives and hard drives is limited to what your ASPI layer is capable of handling.  "ASPI" is an acronym for Advanced SCSI Programming Interface, and provides a layer between applications and SCSI devices.  It also provides an interface for IDE CD-ROM drives, and may work for other devices depending on which ASPI implementation you have.
  • Microsoft provides a generic ASPI layer that is commonly replaced when CD recording software is installed.  Adaptec/Roxio provides one implementation, Ahead's Nero provides another.  All of these will work just fine with CD-ROM drives, but access to other devices may be affected by the currently installed version.
  • Your SCSI card must be ASPI-compliant.  Nearly all cards are.  Adaptec 2940-series cards have been tested, as have some older Symbios/LSI Logic cards (e.g. Diamond FirePort).

As the saying goes, "your mileage may vary".  The only way to know for certain if something will work is to try it and see.

CompactFlash Card Reader Compatibility List

One common problem in Win98 is refusal by the CF reader driver to allow access to unrecognized logical volumes ("logical volumes" are lettered drives, like "C:").  In such cases, the card will not even show up in the logical volume list.  Win2K and WinXP are usually better about this.

Depending on your hardware and software configuration, you may be able to open your card reader by name (e.g. "SanDisk Imagemate II Direct-access device"), rather than drive letter.  In this case you're actually using the ASPI layer to access the device, which is a little strange since CF card readers aren't SCSI and don't work like CD-ROM drives.  This does appear to work for reading, but fails for writing.  Depending on which ASPI implementation you have installed, writes may be rejected or may appear to succeed but not actually go through.

Thus far, no fully-functioning CF configuration for Win98/ME has been found.