Replacing hard drive or upgrade OS on Mac SE

[dougal]

Hi guys... On my previous thread I was complaining because the hard drive on my Macintosh SE needs to be hit to start up when it has been switched off for a few hours to a day.

The Mac is a Macintosh SE FDHD (1.44MB drive) with 4MB RAM and a 40MB Factory Sony SCSI drive. It is running System 6.0.7.

I have a 120MB Maxtor SCSI Drive which works fine but I have no idea how to set it up for the Macintosh SE.

I would like to set it up running System 7.0.1 (the Maxtor 120MB)

Or last resort set up 7.0.1 on the factory Sony 40MB though i'd much rather use the bigger more reliable 120MB Maxtor.

How can I go about it ? I have a Macintosh External SCSI CDROM drive from my old broken LC III but System 6 sucks and has no support for it.

Floppy disks is a pain too.

Is there a way to use my PC to set up the 120GB Maxtor ?

PC is running WIN 7 and has a PCI SCSI card for 50pin SCSI drives.

 

[AndyLandy]

Do you have a System 7 install CD?

If it'll run 7.5.3, you can download that free from Apple somewhere.

Just bung a CD in the CD-ROM drive and boot off it? I think even that far back, you can simply hold down 'C' to boot off a CD-ROM.

 

[dougal]

I can download it with the PC and burn it.

But I don't know if the Mac SE can boot cd. I could try I suppose.

 

[AndyLandy]

I can download it with the PC and burn it.

But I don't know if the Mac SE can boot cd. I could try I suppose.

I know my old Quadras could boot off CD. Hopefully your SE can, too.

Let us know how you get on!

 

[tokyoracer]

Don't run 7.5.3 on a 68k Mac it will be slow as hell. If I were you i'd just stick to an earlier version of System 7 (that natively supports SCSI CD devices).

 

[AndyLandy]

Don't run 7.5.3 on a 68k Mac it will be slow as hell. If I were you i'd just stick to an earlier version of System 7 (that natively supports SCSI CD devices).

Really? It's been so long since I've had anything to do with 68k Macintosh. I'm sure I ran 7.5.3 perfectly successfully on a Quadra 700. Then again, that's an '040 machine.

Damnit, I want a classic 68k Mac again!

 

[dougal]

Yeah 7.5.3 ran very well on my LCIII which was a 25mhz '030. But I can imagine it slow on the 8mhz SE.

Tomorrow ill see if it will boot my 7.5 cd. If it can do that I'll just get 7.0.1 burned and set it up.

If it can't well mmmmm.

 

[dougal]

AndyLandy you were right! It does indeed boot CD.

Now I couldn't find System 7.0.1 on CD and floppy disk is a pain in the backside so I am installing 7.5.3 as it seems to run OK from CDROM.

Note: I had to modify the HD SC Setup as it only recognizes Apple SCSI hard drives. The simple modification enabled it to easily detect and initialize my Maxtor 120MB SCSI drive.

System 7.5.3 is taking a long time to install but iirc its normal and even on my LC III it took long.

 

[AndyLandy]

Awesome, great result!



Glad to hear it's all booting. The acid test of course is how well the system performs post-install. What's the spec of the SE? They're '030s, aren't they?

 

[dougal]

Awesome, great result!



Glad to hear it's all booting. The acid test of course is how well the system performs post-install. What's the spec of the SE? They're '030s, aren't they?

It runs ok. And the CPU is a 68000 8mhz as its an SE not SE/30.

Not too slow. Not fast either. But very usable.

 

[AndyLandy]

Oh wow! An actual 68k Mac! I'm impressed it'll boot 7.5 at all!

I'm forgotten so much about classic Macs. There was a time when I knew most of the models and what you could do with them. Not any more.

Probably about time to swot up on them again, I suspect!

 

[dougal]

I'll post a small video if it booting up etc soon.

---------- Post added at 23:40 ---------- Previous post was at 23:18 ----------

http://youtu.be/Hyky5gFZ8KM

Taken with iPhone.

 

[dougal]

Hmmm 7.5.3 was too memory hungry for the poor 4MB SE to handle. Too many apps would not run and it was slow.

Installed 7.0.1 and its much better now.

 

[protek]

Hey, this is great info! I've been meaning to upgrade the hard disk and reinstall the OS into my Mac Classic.

So, basically the 7.0.1 would be the best choice as the Classic is also a vanilla 68k.

Do you have an external SCSI CD-ROM or how did you connect your drive into the Mac? I've got an internal SCSI CD-ROM but I either need to make an adapter cable or open up the back plane and connect it directly to the motherboard. Well, need to open it up anyway, if I upgrade the hard disk.

Where can you download the image to be burn on CD? I've only managed to find the OS on floppies at Apple's site.

 

[dougal]

Hey, this is great info! I've been meaning to upgrade the hard disk and reinstall the OS into my Mac Classic.

So, basically the 7.0.1 would be the best choice as the Classic is also a vanilla 68k.

Do you have an external SCSI CD-ROM or how did you connect your drive into the Mac? I've got an internal SCSI CD-ROM but I either need to make an adapter cable or open up the back plane and connect it directly to the motherboard. Well, need to open it up anyway, if I upgrade the hard disk.

Where can you download the image to be burn on CD? I've only managed to find the OS on floppies at Apple's site.

On my SE i just plugged it into the external SCSI port at the back. I use an original Apple scsi drive which was from an LCIII.

I think you can only download 7.5.3 as a CD image and that I believe i got it from the Apple site as it is now free.

Forgot how i burned it as it was ages ago.

 

[protek]

Ok, thanks for that info!

I was going through the Apple support pages and found a file called System_7.0.1.smi.bin. Is this it? It's about 5 MB in size.

EDIT: Ok, turns out this is the correct file. Now I really needed some Windows utilitity to get the image transferred on floppies.

 

[dougal]

Ok, thanks for that info!

I was going through the Apple support pages and found a file called System_7.0.1.smi.bin. Is this it? It's about 5 MB in size.

EDIT: Ok, turns out this is the correct file. Now I really needed some Windows utilitity to get the image transferred on floppies.

Yeah that is 7.0.1 which is floppy disk only.

I use Transmac which works great for me even given the fact that my floppy drive is a USB one. Only thing that sucks is it is Shareware 15 days. Mine has not been 15 days yet so no idea what will happen when it expires.

Oh, is your FDD (on Mac) High Density ?

 

[protek]

I use Transmac which works great for me even given the fact that my floppy drive is a USB one. Only thing that sucks is it is Shareware 15 days. Mine has not been 15 days yet so no idea what will happen when it expires.

Oh, is your FDD (on Mac) High Density ?

Thanks! Have to try the Transmac out.

Yes, the Classic comes with high density drive by default.

Other thing is that I have possibly find a suitable cable for my new hard disk as it is 68-pin. I've got one adapter but I think one or other end was of the wrong gender.

 

[dougal]

I use Transmac which works great for me even given the fact that my floppy drive is a USB one. Only thing that sucks is it is Shareware 15 days. Mine has not been 15 days yet so no idea what will happen when it expires.

Oh, is your FDD (on Mac) High Density ?

Thanks! Have to try the Transmac out.

Yes, the Classic comes with high density drive by default.

Other thing is that I have possibly find a suitable cable for my new hard disk as it is 68-pin. I've got one adapter but I think one or other end was of the wrong gender.

Adapters for scsi drives are cheap and plentiful. Ask around or search here, i'm sure you will find something.

The classic by default has a 50 pin SCSI header right ?

 

[protek]

Adapters for scsi drives are cheap and plentiful. Ask around or search here, i'm sure you will find something.

The classic by default has a 50 pin SCSI header right ?

Probably will do that when it becomes clear what I actually need. I -think- the internal SCSI header is 50 pin. External, of course is the 25-pin D.