Macintosh SE Miniscribe hard disk

[Papalapa]

After succesfully restoring an Intel iMac 2006 and a Macintosh LC II now there’s a new kid in town:

I recently buyed this Macintosh SE 1/20 and is in very good condition in general terms, it only needs a floppy drive grease and cleaning and a memory upgrade already ordered. I was happy for this but after two hours testing the machine the hard disk made a strange noise and now it sounds like the disk is not correctly spining and of course cannot be used. After an Internet search I found that the “solution” is to take off the electronic board of the hard disk and turn the flywhell a little bit manually.

Of course this is not an elegant solution and most probably the drive will fail soon and that’s why I wonder if there’s any way to replace this drive by another one. I’m not talking to increase the size because most probably MacOS will not be able to handle the whole disk, but if can be partitioned up to 20MB or 40MB will be enough for me, even if the rest of the disk size remains useless. The goal is to have a reliable drive instead of a “brick” and most probably in the USA (home of the Macintosh) you’ll have better workarounds that in Europe where these models do not achieved the same sales level...

This is the Miniscribe hard disk:

Thank you!

 

[pm-r]

That “solution” you found was for overcoming the "stiction" that would occur with those old drives when the platters would stick to the pickup head and prevent it from turning.

The easier and quicker method "fix" was to use a large rubber mallet, and give the Mac a good sharp smack/hit or two/three on it's side while powering it up.

I saw an ad a few days ago from Western Digital for some IDE drives. I think they were about 80 MB and around $80 USD.

I cannot recall the maximum size drive one could use in those Macs.

PS: be VERY careful of the CRT's high-voltage inside those machines as it can kill!!! Also, you'll need a very long bladed screwdriver with Phillips or torx head, I can't remember which, to reach the screws that hold the cover on.






- Patrick
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[Papalapa]

The easier and quicker method "fix" was to use a large rubber mallet, and give the Mac a good sharp smack/hit or two/three on it's side while powering it up.

Really????

Another option is to install an SCSI2SD interface but I want to leave the Mac as close as possible to the original and I love the big noise that the Miniscribe hard disk makes during its operation.

PS: be VERY careful of the CRT's high-voltage inside those machines as it can kill!!! Also, you'll need a very long bladed screwdriver with Phillips or torx head, I can't remember which, to reach the screws that hold the cover on.

Thank you for your advise. I'm 55 years old and in the past I repaired some TRC TVs when LCD, OLED or plasma panels still did'nt exist and I remember that this kind of discharge is not nice...

 

[pm-r]

Really????

Honest.

And I still actually have my big hard rubber mallet that has been used for all kinds of things. Very hang tools, but not needed on any old classic Macs these days, at least not for me.

BTW: maybe some SCSI/IDE/PATA Adapters or combinations might work with more recent drives, but I doubt if you will be able to find one in good shape that's actually small enough capacity to be able to work.





- Patrick
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[chscag]

Thank you for your advise. I'm 55 years old and in the past I repaired some TRC TVs when LCD, OLED or plasma panels still did'nt exist and I remember that this kind of discharge is not nice...

Have fun with your new Mac SE, I haven't seen one of those for many years. I'm surprised you were able to find one there in Spain. And by the way, in my working days I used to repair consumer electronics as a part time job in addition to my full time job with the US Govt. I worked on many TV sets and always remembered to be careful around the CRT Second Anode. Most TV sets back in those days generated 25KV at the Second Anode. We used to keep a special discharge probe with a grounding strap handy in order to safely remove any stray voltage.

 

[Papalapa]

Well, after some work totally dissasembling, cleaning, memory upgrading and purchasing a keyboard and mouse, the first start up once assembled was a nightmare because the Mac don't turned on. There's no "chime" noise nor HD or flopppy activity so, I suspect that there's a problem in the mainboard.

I found that this error code means "$0E - Data bus test at location $0 failed. Minor error code indicates the bad bits as a 16bit mask for bits 1500. This may indicate either a bad RAM chip or data bus failure.". When I purchased the Mac it was correctly working except the HD and the only internal change has been to replace two 256Kb. memory modules by two 1MB memory modules for a total of 4MB. The purchased modules were tested with an electronic SIMMs tester and were corrects. Both new SIMMs are 80ns (as the 2 orignal SIMMs) and with parity while the original ones are without parity but if I well understood these type of moudles can be mixed in the Macintosh SE because both are accpeted. Maybe I'm wrong? ¿? Of course the same type modules are correctly placed in a row.

The other cause can be the memory socket but I do not think so. As the socket was plastic made I broke two small tabs when the modules were released for cleaning purposes, but even so I think that the contact is good and there's not a bad contact. This week-end I'll try to set only a pair of modules and disconnect the hard disk leaving only the floppy to see what happens. Later, I'll test the other pair of SIMMs and if all is OK, set the 4 SIMMs together again.

Meanwhile as it seems that I stll have a lot of things to learn, I'll continue with my favorite book

Bye!

 

[pm-r]

When I purchased the Mac it was correctly working except the HD and the only internal change has been to replace two 256Kb. memory modules by two 1MB memory modules for a total of 4MB.

My very dim memory recalls that the Mac SE I had required some special card or something to take the maximum 4 MB RAM it could handle, as well as something extra to support a larger internal hard drive, both of which the previous owner had installed. I do not recall the details.

The thing was actually "loaded for bear" compared to most normal Mac standards in those days. I didn't need it as I think I had advanced to using an LC 630 and I sold the SE, complete with custom Apple carrying case at the local VMUG Garage Sale for $25.00 as I recall.

I wonder if it's still in use or working state???? Hmmm...???





- Patrick
======

 

[Papalapa]

My very dim memory recalls that the Mac SE I had required some special card or something to take the maximum 4 MB RAM it could handle, as well as something extra to support a larger internal hard drive, both of which the previous owner had installed. I do not recall the details.

The thing was actually "loaded for bear" compared to most normal Mac standards in those days. I didn't need it as I think I had advanced to using an LC 630 and I sold the SE, complete with custom Apple carrying case at the local VMUG Garage Sale for $25.00 as I recall.

I wonder if it's still in use or working state???? Hmmm...???

- Patrick
======

Before to buy the SIMMs I checked the Macintosh SE repair's manual and it says that the only thing to do is to correctly set the memory jumper, nothing else. After some tests this morning I found that the purchased SIMMs must be defective because even with only these two SIMMs installed I get an error. I re-installed the original four SIMMs and now I have only 2,5MB but al least it works.

On the other hand it seems incredible but I found at eBay a 500MB 50-pin SCSI Apple working drive for only 45€ (around $51.00). It is considerably smaller size than the Miniscribe and very similar that the one that I have into the Macintosh LCII and most probably the energy compsumation will be also lower so, good news from this side and we will see what can I do to set the 4MB...

You said only $25.00 for a Mac SE plus carrying case?? This is not a sale, is a gift

If somebody wants to see my opened 30 years old defective hard disk triying to start up, watch this video:

.

 

[chscag]

Thanks for the video. It brings back memories of working with those old platter hard drives. Good luck with your SE and keep us up to date on your progress.

 

[Papalapa]

I got it! I got it!

Finally after some time I found a pair of 1MB non-parity RAM modules and a 80MB HD that fits on mi SE and I already started to "feed" it with some software. In the picture I'm installing the MacOS 7.0.1 in Spanish. Next step is to connect the SE with the LCII using the serial port to share files but it seems not to be a complicated operation. At least now I have all the SE hardware in good conditions

 

[pm-r]

I got it! I got it!

WOW!!! Well done and I haven't seen an install like that since I can't remember when. "Please install Disk # xxx"... over and over....





- Patrick
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