Mac IIci hard disk not working

I have a Mac IIci with an 80MB Quantum ProDrive that isn't working and I'm trying to figure out if it can be fixed. It seems to spin up ok, but isn't recognized as a hard disk. I tried SCSIProbe on the IIci and it doesn't see any scsi devices connected at all. I then tried putting it in another Mac, and there it does show up in SCSIProbe, but when I try to click the "mount" button, it sounds like it momentarily stops spinning for a split second and then make a few seeking sounds but nothing happens, which is the same thing it does in the IIci when I first turn it on. I also tried both Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup and these are this what I get from them:



I also recorded the sound it makes when I try to mount it:
Anyone have an idea of what's causing this and if it can be fixed?

It’s probably done.

Old Quantum hard drives frequently fail, sitting in a computer that’s been unused for decades.

The funny thing is that it was working when I tested the Mac before buying it the other day. Somehow the hard drive died in the two days between then and me turning it on at home. It seems to me like it isn't a mechanical issue but something with the controller board, just based on the fact that it is on the scsi bus but the Apple utilities aren't recognizing it as a hard drive. But I don't know, I'm just guessing here.

The HD probably hadn't been fired up for some time and your testing gave it a last gasp before complete failure. Being an early Quantum it's probably a disk head crash and not repairable.

Yeah, the hard drives I’ve had that have come with second hand macs either worked out of the box, or didn’t and weren’t repairable.

Yup, time for a BlueSCSI or similar solid state solution. I have only had two HDD's work when I got my MAC's of like 6 machines. One worked enough to boot into OS 7.1 and show the persons NSFW background but did not boot far enough to get any desktop icons; after that it never booted again. My IICI came with a quantum that worked and I was able to archive its information but it will spend the rest of its life as an artifact, it too will probably fail if I continue to try and use it. They were never meant to last this long especially as Forrest mentioned, they have been sitting static for years.

Is it just these Quantum ProDrives that commonly fail? Because I have a Mac with a 2GB Quantum Fireball that I’ve had since the 90s and it still works perfectly. Personally I don’t like the idea of modernizing these old Macs so I’m going to try to find a replacement scsi hard disk of a similar size to put in this IIci. Is there a more reliable brand I should look for?

u wanna buy a working scsi disk? i'll sell you one

All mechanical drives will fail, its not a matter of if but a matter of when. The when depends on use and handling as well as storage. Your Fireball is no exemption and if you value the data on the drive, you should back it up, not because it will fail tomorrow but simply because it will one day fail.

Note that even solid state solutions will possibly fail but the used market for spinning drives is a crap shoot, you might find an honest seller and the drive will work and test fine one day and the next time you use it it will not.

I completely understand the nostalgia of spinning drives, shoot I have even looked for ways of using more modern SCSI drives on these macs without success.

Many Quantum drives fail because they used some type of rubber to rest the head against when the drive powers down. The rubber has turned sticky over time, holding the head in place.

in my experience, Syquest 44 MB drives hold up much longer than most drives If want the real hard drive experience.

finkmac said:

u wanna buy a working scsi disk? i'll sell you one

Click to expand...

I was able to find a replacement 80MB Quantum ProDrive LPS on eBay for cheap, and it seems to be working for now, but I'll keep that in mind if this one dies too. The only thing about this drive is that the activity LED connector is different from the other drive and the LED from the Iici doesn't fit. The positive and negative on it is reversed and the plastic connector doesn't fit that way. Anyone know a way to get it connected without destroying the original connector? Some kind of adapter maybe?

Never mind, I just realized I can slide the plastic connector off the pins on the hard disk.

I almost exclusively only ever stick with “real” hard drives… I’ve had only like a 60% success rate buying them on eBay but there are a couple decent electronics stores in the area with older stuff if I need to pick one up and my success rate is 100% with them. Most all of my older Macs have 2gb Seagates in them. The key to keeping them running is to actually run them every once in a while, like starting up an old car every now and then.

The external hard drive on the Mac Plus our family bought new in 1988 has only been swapped out once. The original 40MB unit in it died in 2003 and I replaced it with an 80MB unit that is still running.

The only older machine I’ve got with a modern storage device is a PM6300 with a 128gb SATA SSD. That was more of a “can I hack this to work” sort of idea and it worked so well and it’s so quick that I left it. Incidentally, I tried the exact same setup on a 6400, and it doesn’t work. Computer doesn’t start at all if it’s connected, and will hard freeze immediately if I hot plug it into the system after it’s booted from another drive. Never did figure that one out.

Those Quantums are the worst though, yeah. I always wondered why they had such a high failure rate after storage.