CMD HD-200 Questions

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rob_santry

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Hi Group,

I'm finally playing around with my Commodore 128D with a couple of CMD HD-200 hard drives. I have a few questions. First, one hard drive has a Maxtor 2GB SCSI drive dated 12/95 and the other one is a Quantum Fireball ST which is a 4 GB SCSI drive. Which one is the stock drive? Maybe CMD let the user decide, i don't know. I got the drives this January and noticed one of them was 'sticking' a little on spinup. It took a few tries to get it to spin. Probably because it was too damned cold in my garage workshop. Now, this summer, no issues with either one. Should I find a replacement on ebay for the SCSI drive that was a little sticky?

Another question is that CMD soldered in a Tadiran 3.6v battery to enable a system clock, so should I replace them with new batteries? They are still available through Allied Electronics. I checked the voltage at 3.42 volts. The batteries and circuit boards are immaculate. If the units were made and assembled in 12/95 those batteries are 21 years old.

I have no idea what I am going to do with two of these monsters. Thanks in advance...

Rob
 
Which one is the stock drive?
Neither. The CMD HD-200 came with a 200mBytes drive and that was considered enormous back then.
 
Quantum drives quite often end up sticking as the bumper rubber goes soft and sticky. It's an easy fix to pop it open in a nice clean area and wrap the bumper. I used thin sellotape and they've worked a treat since I've done them.

Sent from my E5603 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks eslapion and SaviorX. Yea, I thought the timing was such that a smaller SCSI drive would be offered. The previous owner must have upgraded himself. He was a monster Wheels and GeoPublish guy so he may have wanted the drive space.

Thanks Cryton for the tip! You know, I have a small collection of Macintosh SE's and half of them have dead SCSI drives. I will try your trick and see if I can get any of them to work. I wasn't sure what the 'bumper rubber' was, (I've never had the courage to open a hard drive), so I found a link that shows a guy repairing the same thing on a Quantum SCSI drive. I don't agree with how cavalier the guy was, but the video shows the area in question pretty well. I like your solution of wrapping the bumper rubber. Here is the video:

http://hackaday.com/2015/10/13/macintosh-hard-drive-repair/

I do pick up Mac SE's at yard sales and such, never spending more than $20 for one. I've even had a guy give me three at one time when he was moving. He just put them out on the curb. I asked and he said sure, take them. All three work :)
 
Wow I'm jealous of the bargains you've got. I don't see that many mac's over here. I have a mac color classic that I've got up and running (having never had a mac before) it's quite a nice little machine but I'm struggling to get OS 7.6 or 7.1 for that matter on floppy, just in case I need to reinstall so if you find a spare set in your bargain hunting please give me a shout ;).

Let me know how you get on with your hard drive tinkering :)
 
Great idea Hendrik! I was thinking the same thing. Surely there must be a solid state solution. So, does the atztecMonster card fit inside the CMD HD-200? And, where do I get one? I see as these old SCSI drives age out, this will be a great solution...

Rob
 
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