jackharrison21
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: My Mac Classic Won't Boot. Only Brings up Floppy with question mark.

I bought a Macintosh Classic (original, running System 7.0.0) last weekend. I connected it up (no keyboard) and it ran fine. But when I tried to turn it on the next morning, it brought up a grey screen with a picture of a floppy disk with a question mark on it. After about five attempts at starting, it booted itself up (????). However, after that the problem started again and I have not managed to get it to boot succesfully from about fifty attempted boots. Does anyone know if this would be a hardware or software problem and how to solve it?

 

Thanks

 

Jack

Macintosh Classic, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Posted on Jul 12, 2011 9:18 AM

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jackharrison21

Q: My Mac Classic Won't Boot. Only Brings up Floppy with question mark.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Jul 12, 2011 9:47 AM in response to jackharrison21
    Level 10 (314,444 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 12, 2011 9:47 AM in response to jackharrison21

    It's probably software; insert a boot floppy and run Disk First Aid on the internal drive. You may need to install a new OS.

     

    (59322)

  • by jackharrison21,

    jackharrison21 jackharrison21 Jul 12, 2011 9:57 AM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 12, 2011 9:57 AM in response to Niel

    I haven't got a boot disk. Can you make one on windows 7?

  • by JustSomeGuy,

    JustSomeGuy JustSomeGuy Jul 12, 2011 12:35 PM in response to jackharrison21
    Level 3 (586 points)
    Jul 12, 2011 12:35 PM in response to jackharrison21

    jackharrison21 wrote:

     

    [...] However, after that the problem started again and I have not managed to get it to boot succesfully from about fifty attempted boots. Does anyone know if this would be a hardware or software problem and how to solve it?

     

    It's a hardware problem.  Your hard drive is no longer spinning up - it's suffering from "stiction," where the viscocity of the spindle or head lubricant gets too thick for the drive motor to overcome.

     

    The way to solve it permanently is to replace the hard drive with a solid state solution.  Working backwards... the next easier solution is to open the machine up, remove the hard drive, and rotate it sharply along the axis of the spindle.  That may loosen the platters enough to let it start up again once you put it back together.  And the easiest solution - boot from a floppy.

     

    You can't create a floppy using a Windows machine.  The drive speeds and writing techniques are incompatible.  You can use a service like this to make one for you, or just find someone or a user group locally with older Mac hardware.

  • by Jan Hedlund,

    Jan Hedlund Jan Hedlund Jul 12, 2011 3:48 PM in response to jackharrison21
    Level 6 (9,901 points)
    Jul 12, 2011 3:48 PM in response to jackharrison21

    Hi Jack,

     

    The Macintosh Classic can handle both 800K and 1.44 MB floppy disks. It is possible (but rather complicated) to create a bootable (sector-copied) 1.44 MB diskette from certain disk images on at least a Windows XP machine with a built-in floppy drive.

     

    The British System 7.0.1 Disk Tools download can be used.

     

    http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -British/Macintosh/System/System_7.0.1/

     

    An appropriate Windows version of StuffIt/Aladdin Expander would be required to decode the .bin (and subsequently decompress the intermediate file). Furthermore, one would need a suitable PC disk image program (such as WinImage) to write the resulting image to a 1.44 MB floppy.

     

    Jan