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Best Mass Storage Solution for Apple //e Platinum?

onesimus

onesimus

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2023
Messages
144
Location
Turtle Creek (Madison), West Virginia
Hey guys! I've just recently been able to finally buy myself some vintage computers that I've been wanting for so long, so I'm kind of new to the Apple // ecosystem. I'm interested in adding mass storage to my platinum, and I'm wondering what kind of solution you guys think is the best available right now. As in most convenient, best functionality, etc. I have a floppy emu, but only have the disk // controller card so I can't currently use hard drive images. Would the best thing to do be just buying the Yellowstone controller? Or is there any other solution (hopefully cheaper) that would work just as well or better?

Thanks in advance and God bless!
 
If you already have a floppy emu, a microdrive Turbo is a good way to go. If you don't care about budget there is CFFA II, but I personally use a combo of a microdrive Turbo for mass, and floppyemu for floppy images.

A Yellowstone controller is nice but a lot of money if you don't need 3.5 inch 800k disk image support.

Also the rev C floppyEMU can act as both drives on a 5.25 or disk II controller (may need a wire kit for the Disk II card, I forget). Between that and a Microdrive I find myself well equipped on most Apple II models.
 
skate323k137 said:
If you already have a floppy emu, a microdrive Turbo is a good way to go. If you don't care about budget there is CFFA II, but I personally use a combo of a microdrive Turbo for mass, and floppyemu for floppy images.

A Yellowstone controller is nice but a lot of money if you don't need 3.5 inch 800k disk image support.

Also the rev C floppyEMU can act as both drives on a 5.25 or disk II controller (may need a wire kit for the Disk II card, I forget). Between that and a Microdrive I find myself well equipped on most Apple II models.
Click to expand...
If I'm not mistaken, I have the rev B because it was the most affordable, and you do need to get the wire kit for the Disk II card. I was going to get a microdrive turbo at one point, but hadn't committed yet. It really probably is the most convenient solution. All the good vintage computer stuff is like $100, man I could end up spending so much money in this hobby at places like reactive micro and texelec!

If I were to say, buy a macintosh or a IIgs in the future, do you think it would be worth it to just go ahead and invest in the yellowstone or do you think a scsi2sd solution would be better?
 
IIgs can already understand smartport / 3.5 800K, generally no need for a yellowstone there.

You don't need a wire kit for a FloppyEMU on Disk II unless you use it as 2 drives at once (Rev C only). It's a bonus, not a must.

Mac wise, a scsi solution is ideal for Mass (unless you go new enough for an IDE controller). FloppyEMU is useful on Apple and Mac, but you must switch firmwares :/
 
skate323k137 said:
IIgs can already understand smartport / 3.5 800K, generally no need for a yellowstone there.

You don't need a wire kit for a FloppyEMU on Disk II unless you use it as 2 drives at once (Rev C only). It's a bonus, not a must.

Mac wise, a scsi solution is ideal for Mass (unless you go new enough for an IDE controller). FloppyEMU is useful on Apple and Mac, but you must switch firmwares :/
Click to expand...
Ah didn't realize you had to switch firmwares, one may as well buy another if they wanted to use it on a macintosh then. Yeah I mean if I had the wire kit I guess I could make a hard drive image and be able to use a floppy at the same time, even though it'd be a little less convenient. I'll have to check and make sure what revision I have.

Thanks for the info, I came to pretty close to the same conclusion that you've talked about before posting. I just wanted to check with you guys and make sure there wasn't something awesome out there that I didn't know about. I've gotten so much valuable info here that has been nearly priceless in my vintage computing experience, like when someone told me about a project called MCIDE which let's you use an sd card as an hdd in my ps/2 with the stupid microchannel architecture. PS/2's are just not worth the hassle and limitations unless one has a nostalgic connection to them.

ANYWAY, thanks again for the info.
 
Any time.

I did exatcly whay you mention; got a 2nd FloppyEMU for my Macintoshes for when I need it. I'll say for me though the FloppyEMU does get used the most on Apple II. I guess a bonus though if you got another, is you could have a rev C for your Apple II, since there is no disadvantages to the rev B on a Macintosh IMO. That's what I did; flashed the Rev B to the Macintosh firmware.
 
If you can afford $225, the CFFA 3000 from ReactiveMicro is probably the best bet, as it does floppy and hard drive emulation in one card and has the ability to switch disk images with a push button (build a list of images to switch through in the CFFA 3000 menu). The $225 price includes the disk change remote (to swap images for both emulated drive 1 and 2) and a 512MB CF card.

www.reactivemicro.com

CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM for II, II+, ///, IIe, and IIgs

This is the CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation.ReActiveMicro is an authorized dealer and partner with R&D Automation in an effort to help bring mor
www.reactivemicro.com www.reactivemicro.com

It supports both CF cards and USB thumb drives, so you can use a CF card for long term internal storage and have USB externally to swap disk images as you want.

I use one of the original R&D Automation ones in my platinum //e and it works great. Not as fast as the DMA enabled microdrive turbo, but still very fast.
 
skate323k137 said:
Any time.

I did exatcly whay you mention; got a 2nd FloppyEMU for my Macintoshes for when I need it. I'll say for me though the FloppyEMU does get used the most on Apple II. I guess a bonus though if you got another, is you could have a rev C for your Apple II, since there is no disadvantages to the rev B on a Macintosh IMO. That's what I did; flashed the Rev B to the Macintosh firmware.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'd say it's much more beneficial for the Apple // just all around since there are multiple good solutions for a macintosh.
HoJoPo said:
If you can afford $225, the CFFA 3000 from ReactiveMicro is probably the best bet, as it does floppy and hard drive emulation in one card and has the ability to switch disk images with a push button (build a list of images to switch through in the CFFA 3000 menu). The $225 price includes the disk change remote (to swap images for both emulated drive 1 and 2) and a 512MB CF card.

www.reactivemicro.com

CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM for II, II+, ///, IIe, and IIgs

This is the CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation.ReActiveMicro is an authorized dealer and partner with R&D Automation in an effort to help bring mor
www.reactivemicro.com www.reactivemicro.com

It supports both CF cards and USB thumb drives, so you can use a CF card for long term internal storage and have USB externally to swap disk images as you want.

I use one of the original R&D Automation ones in my platinum //e and it works great. Not as fast as the DMA enabled microdrive turbo, but still very fast.
Click to expand...
Seems pretty awesome with a lot of features. I'll keep it in mind, but I'm not so sure that it's worth quite that much to me in my current situation. Definitely would be nice though, I didn't realize all you can do with it.
 
CFFA 3000 does not support new WOZ images and is quite overpriced and obsolete I think.
 
I am using a floppy emu and an Apple ii smart P card. Got the card from a seller in the UK Dan really nice guy. Works great I have Action Replay running on it working great
 
onesimus said:
yeah i found one listing on ebay for $169. it's looking like the best choices at this point are the booti and the microdrive turbo. Any particular reason one would get the booti over the microdrive?
Click to expand...
Im not talking about buying a booti on ebay. That would just be stupid.. if you have never owned one they are versatile inexpensive and really really easy to use (booti) whT else do you need?
 
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