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I just picked up a used Apple IIc. For some reason all I get when I boot is Check Disk Drive on the screen, even with a bootable disk in the internal drive:
I cannot even get the system to read the external drive when powering on, so I assume I will have to tell the system to boot from the external drive once booting into BASIC.
Does anyone know how I might boot into BASIC and what command I need to run to load software from the external floppy drive?
Press: Ctrl+Reset
This should get you to the Applesoft BASIC prompt, with a checkerboard cursor:
]▩
If you don't see that then something is wrong. Otherwise you can check your ROM version:
]?PEEK(64447)
255
]▩
ROM version 255 can supposedly boot the external drive (though I've never tried this personally) but some disks might not boot correctly. You can try with:
]PR#7
ROM versions 0, 3, and 4 need to boot the internal drive first (as PR#7 does something else) then the external drive can be accessed as drive 2.
]CATALOG,D2
Simply press RESET (depending on model and setting you might have to hold down CTRL or Open-Apple+CTRL before pressing RESET).
This will bring you into default APPLESOFT BASIC.
Just, BASIC does not contain any disk commands - unless DOS is loaded from floppy - which pressing Reset will abort :)
The only function available is to boot from a controller by typung PR#6RETURN - which I'd assume won't work either.
