Mac Classic II hard drive

You can plug in most any SCSI disk, but finding the software to partition and format it is another matter. Apple did install special firmware in particular models of disks so they were recognizable by tools like the SCSI formatter included in 7.0.1 (Apple HD SC Setup). In software that old, you're going to need to find either an Apple-blessed drive or get a hold of the hacked SCSI formatter that accepts whatever drive it finds on the bus.

See:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA30344?viewlocale=en_US

and:

http://www.euronet.nl/users/ernstoud/patch.html

Gary,

Copy/Install a System folder and boot from the Zip Drive. We used to have multiple zip disks with multiple systems. Even OS 8.1 will fit on a zip disk if you leave out the file translation software. For now, find a second Zip Drive and set one for ID 5 and the second for ID 6. Hopefully you were able to back up files before the hard drive died.

Also, a program from Mount Anything should work for you. The point of the Apple enabled drives was that the computer would recognize them at startup and did not require special software to mount the drive. Iomega provided Iomega Guest as a small file that could be installed on a friend's computer. Once you used Guest to mount the drive, you could select the drive as the boot device and the Mac would boot from the Zip Drive. Having Guest on your Disk Tools floppy would let you get up and going.

Ji~m

Yes, you can use a larger drive - the extra space beyond what the OS is capable of seeing will be wasted, but that's not anything to worry about. Don't go nuts, though - aim for a small-ish drive, 1-2GB.

Hmmmm, two "new" drives, both bad? Strikes me as a little odd. Do you hear them spin up? Are they jumpered as a SCSI ID other than 0 or 7?

This may be what Appaloosa mac man was talking about:

http://download.cnet.com/Mt-Everything/3000-2094_4-3043.html

Gary,

The home page shows two versions of Mt. Everything (1.5.5). Only the 68k variant would be of interest in this case.

http://www.overnet.de/hhp/mte/

You may want to have a look at the Tips and Hints section of the manual.

http://www.overnet.de/hhp/mte/manual/tips.html

Jan

The thing is, with now three Apple drives that don't work with this Mac - the Mt Everything route strikes me as a bit of a red herring. Something hardware-ish is more likely wrong.

Hi,

Yes, I agree, but Mt. Everything could possibly be one way of confirming that. Gary has probably tried resetting the PRAM already. It may be worth inspecting the condition of the internal battery, too. A problem involving, for example, the SCSI circuits cannot be ruled out.

Jan