Archived - MS-DOS External 5.25-inch Floppy Drives: Macintosh Compatibility

No, MS-DOS external 5.25-inch floppy drives are not compatible with Macintosh
computers. An MS-DOS external 5.25-inch floppy drive is a device that attaches
to a MS-DOS computer and reads 5.25-inch diskettes.

Macintosh computers must receive information on mounted disks. A key system
call that gathers this information, DiskInPlace, is not supported by MS-DOS
floppy drives.

Also, MS-DOS external floppy drives do not have the same pinouts as Macintosh
drives.

There are Macintosh-compatible external floppy drives which DO attach to some
Macintosh computers and read 5.25-inch MS-DOS diskettes. These floppy drives
are designed to connect to Macintosh computers, not to MS-DOS computers. Two
examples are:
* the Apple PC 5.25 Floppy Drive, made by Apple Computer
* the DaynaFile, made by Dayna Communications.