There are several steps to take here. 1. Run SCSI Probe. This is a freeware control panel that you will need to add to the system folder on your boot disk. This will let you know if the computer is recognizing the presence of a hard drive. If nothing comes up here, you will need to replace the drive. If something does exist, try the techniques listed below. 2. Run Disk First Aid. This should be on one of the boot disks you made for the SE. If a minor problem exists, this may be able to fix it and mount it. However, don't count on this solving problems--Disk First Aid rarely works in these cases. 3. Run Apple HD SC Setup. It should also be on one of the boot disks. If the drive is Apple-branded, it will be able to format it. If the drive is not Apple-branded, you will get an error message that a suitable drive could not be found. 4. If the drive is not Apple-branded, you will need to find FWB Hard Disk Toolkit, a commercial program capable of formatting any brand of hard drive. It also deals well with drives that may have slight problems. This program can typically be found on eBay and sometimes shows up on our swap list. Keep in mind, however, that this is a commercial program that you have to pay for--it is not available for free on the web. 5. If Hard Disk Toolkit does not work, chances are you need a new hard drive. If you do need a new hard drive, it's best to pull one from a Macintosh LC series computer (sometimes called the "pizza box" design). Many of them used Quantum ProDrive LPS drives, which are reliable and quiet. These drives were typically 40MB or 80MB whereas the drives in SEs were often 20MB (40MB drives were available later in the computer's production run). Also, in respect to your Classic--the ROM disk only works if you press COMMAND-OPTION-X-O at startup. If it's booting into System 6.0.3 and there is no ROM Disk icon in the upper right-hand corner (where a hard drive normally would be), it means that you have System 6.0.3 on your hard drive. Despite what Apple says about a Classic requiring System 6.0.6 or later, it will run fine with an earlier version. The only thing you won't be able to do is change the brightness of the screen since the Brightness control panel was not introduced until System 6.0.6. (The ROM disk does include the Brightness control panel alongside System 6.0.3). Also, a few questions about your SE that would help to identify the type of drive inside of it: 1. What is its serial number? (This is on a sticker on the back of the computer and identifies the age).2. What color is the LED on the front of the machine? There is a chance you have the 20MB MiniScribe drive (these two factors would help to identify whether you do or not since most MiniScribes were found in 1987-early 1989 SEs with red LEDs) . The MiniScribe is notoriously unreliable and has been throughout time--these drives were failing at a somewhat alarming rate twenty years ago and today it is a minor miracle if one finds a working MiniScribe. Hopefully this helps! Scott Baret
--- On Wed, 8/5/09, Niels R. <[email protected]> wrote: From: Niels R. <[email protected]> Subject: How to determine if the HDD of a Macintosh SE is dead? To: "Vintage Macs" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 3:34 AM Hello, I'm totally new to Vintage Macs and System 6. I've a Macintosh SE (with an internal HDD) wich boots to the floppy- with-question-mark icon. I figured I needed some boot disks. I bought a Classis (because of the 1.44 MB drive) and was able to make some bootdisks using my iMac with USB floppy drive. Now the Macintosh SE boots with the 1st disk from the System 6.0.8 800K disk set. There is no HDD icon on the desktop and when I'm running the Installer from the boot disk, it doesn't find a HDD when pressing "Switch disk". The LED on the front of the SE blinks, but I don't know if this means there is HDD activity or not. I don't hear HDD sounds, though. I have another 2 SE's and a SE/30. Can I simply get a HDD out of a spare SE (cases are bad, but they boot into System 6 without boot disk) and reformat it? Kind regards, Niels R. PS: The Classic boots into System 6.0.3. Does this mean it boots from it's ROM? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
