macintosh se/30

[haunt13]

very cool, i suppose i could write the disk images onto a cd and try it via cd drive, its worth a try for i really have nothing to lose....

 

[pigoo3]

very cool, i suppose i could write the disk images onto a cd and try it via cd drive, its worth a try for i really have nothing to lose....

The CD needs to be a "bootable CD". Simply writing floppy disc images to a CD will not make it bootable...it will only be a "storage" CD...not bootable.

You need to make a "bootable" CD with the files from the floppy disc images.

- Nick

 

[harryb2448]

And as Firewire was yet to developed, what would an external CD boot with?

 

[Scott Baret]

The SE/30 actually cannot boot from a CD. Most Macs made prior to 1991 cannot. All SCSI-equipped Macs, however, can utilize a CD-ROM provided a driver is installed in their system folder. (I actually ran a CD-ROM on a Plus with System 6 for a while, so anything is possible).

Apple-branded SCSI drives require the Apple driver. There's one on Apple's website which requires at least System 7.1. System 7.5.3, also free on Apple's site and liked above, should have this driver included. This driver needs to be slipped inside the extensions subfolder of the system folder.

If you have a third-party drive, your best bet is to buy a copy of FWB CD-ROM Toolkit. Version 1.x plays nice with System 6 if you're looking for that capability. (On System 6, the driver should be placed directly in the System folder).

A word of warning--make sure your CD-ROM drive is configured correctly from a SCSI standpoint. If you need a terminator, make sure you get one. Also, avoid conflicts by checking SCSI ID numbers. They shouldn't match any other device on the chain, nor should they be either 0 (reserved for the internal HD) or 7 (which is the Mac itself). I usually made all my CD-ROM drives number 3 on the selector so I could better keep track of them. A CDEV such as SCSI Tools or SCSI Probe can help identify SCSI conflicts.

 

[pigoo3]

The SE/30 actually cannot boot from a CD. Most Macs made prior to 1991 cannot. All SCSI-equipped Macs, however, can utilize a CD-ROM provided a driver is installed in their system folder. (I actually ran a CD-ROM on a Plus with System 6 for a while, so anything is possible).

Apple-branded SCSI drives require the Apple driver. There's one on Apple's website which requires at least System 7.1. System 7.5.3, also free on Apple's site and liked above, should have this driver included. This driver needs to be slipped inside the extensions subfolder of the system folder.

Good stuff.

I mentioned this earlier in the thread...that CD-Rom drives weren't even available when the SE/30 was released...thus the SE/30 has no ROM instructions to allow it to boot from an external CD drive. If there was an SE/30 firmware update (which I'm not 100% sure of)...then it's possible this could be resolved.

Otherwise the SE/30 would have to be booted from it's internal HD (with a valid System Folder installed on it)...or booted from OS floppy disks (a big pain). Then with a newer OS on it (for an SE/30)...like OS 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 (the max. OS for an SE/30)...then an external CD-rom drive can be recognized (but with older OS versions...such as any version of OS 6.0.x or 7.0.x)...the external CD drive won't be recognized.

- Nick

p.s. "Mac SK" mentioned earlier that Apple brand CD-ROM drives (circa late 1980's/early 1990's) may have special firmware on it (built-in)...that may allow older Mac's (like the SE/30) to recognize an external CD drive for booting purposes. Of course someone would have to have a "SPECIALLY MADE" boot CD to do this...since as far as I know...OS 7.5.5 (and older) NEVER came on a CD-ROM disk (just floppies). I think that OS 7.6 or 7.6.1 was the first OS to come on CD-ROM (I believe I have one).

p.s.s. Just to repeat for the OP...OS 7.5.5 is the "newest" OS that can run on an SE/30...so an "Official" OS 7.6 bootable CD-Rom won't work...since the SE/30 cannot run anything after OS 7.5.5.