Apostrophe
Well-known member
Hi,
I've just made an astounding breakthrough with one of my Macintosh SE's. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but still, I got so excited--okay, first a bit of background...
A few months ago, I purchased a Macintosh SE on eBay, in addition to my other one. When it arrived, it was in ok physical condition, apart from yellowing and a few ink marks on it. Toddler's work, most likely...anyway, when I booted it up, I got the flashing question mark floppy disk.
Luckily, I had a set of Mac OS 6.0.8 install disks sent to me by TheNixer. However, the SE didn't recognize its internal hard drive, so I had to run it off the floppy disk. It worked fine--for about five minutes. Then, out of the blue, I got a warning dialog box, a black screen w/sad mac and error code, and there it remained, no matter how many times I rebooted or put in the disk.
I opened the case several times, replugging components, and somehow the floppy drive broke along the way. Scott Baret sent me a replacement, luckily. I also bought a replacement hard drive. Then, in addition to replacing the hard drive and floppy drive, I also replaced the RAM.
I turned it on--and I get the floppy disk question mark. Yay! But it didn't accept the system disk. Not once. I was stumped. The system disk could be read by my other SE, and seemed to be working fine. But this SE flashed up the X every time I put it in. This behavior has never wavered--until last night, when I tried something different--something I never really expected to work.
Now that you know the background story, we're back in the present tense. (Well, this happened last night, so it's not actually present...you get the idea.)
I was told that to get the replacement hard drive to be recognized, I'd need Apple HD SC Setup. Unfortunately, it's not on the OS floppy that TheNixer sent me. But it was on the OS 7.6 CD that I got for my Centris 610. So here's what I did:
1) Booted up the Centris, and inserted my Mac OS 7.6 CD.
2) Pulled Apple HD SC Setup from that disk, copied it to the desktop.
3) Put in my Mac OS 6.0.8 floppy disk sent to me by TheNixer.
4) Pulled the Installer, System, Finder, and various Control Panels from that disk, copied it to the desktop.
5) Put in a brand-new Verbatim 800k disk, attempted to fit Mac OS 6.0.8 and Apple HD SC Setup onto that disk. (Yup--my goal was to make a new system disk--only with the addition of Apple HD SC Setup)
6) Not enough room, I was forced to downsize the System by deleting the Control Panels. I was left with the System, Installer, Finder, and Apple HD SC Setup to copy to the disk.
7) All files then copied successfully to my disk.
8. I was highly doubtful that anything would happen--after all, if the SE didn't recognize TheNixer's disk, why would it recognize mine, which was simply a copy? And I had downsized the files a lot, so again, I was highly doubtful.
9) Booted up the malfunctioning SE. I get the flashing question mark.
10) I inserted my improvised System Disk.
11) HAPPY MAC!!!!
12) DESKTOP SCREEN!!!
13) Dialog box: my disk needs minor repairs. Would I like to repair the disk?
14) My mistake: I clicked Yes.
15) Ran downstairs to report my success to mom and dad.
16) Upon my return upstairs, I see the disk - ejected - and the flashing question mark.
17) Every time I reinserted the disk, I get a Happy Mac, but then the disk ejects and the Happy Mac turns into the flashing question mark.
18. It also now displays this same behavior with TheNixer's disk: Happy Mac, then ejection and flashing question mark.
Today I will try again. And I need your help. I need to find a way to fit the full system contents of TheNixer's disk and Apple HD SC Setup onto one 800k disk. Is this doable?
If not, I'll just try to get ahold of 1mb floppy disks. Is it true that 800k drives read 1mb disks? TheNixer's system disks are all 1mb, so obviously I guess that it is possible.
So, which is easier: finding a way to compress all those files onto an 800k disk, or getting a 1mb disk and putting them there?
-Apostrophe
I've just made an astounding breakthrough with one of my Macintosh SE's. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but still, I got so excited--okay, first a bit of background...
A few months ago, I purchased a Macintosh SE on eBay, in addition to my other one. When it arrived, it was in ok physical condition, apart from yellowing and a few ink marks on it. Toddler's work, most likely...anyway, when I booted it up, I got the flashing question mark floppy disk.
Luckily, I had a set of Mac OS 6.0.8 install disks sent to me by TheNixer. However, the SE didn't recognize its internal hard drive, so I had to run it off the floppy disk. It worked fine--for about five minutes. Then, out of the blue, I got a warning dialog box, a black screen w/sad mac and error code, and there it remained, no matter how many times I rebooted or put in the disk.
I opened the case several times, replugging components, and somehow the floppy drive broke along the way. Scott Baret sent me a replacement, luckily. I also bought a replacement hard drive. Then, in addition to replacing the hard drive and floppy drive, I also replaced the RAM.
I turned it on--and I get the floppy disk question mark. Yay! But it didn't accept the system disk. Not once. I was stumped. The system disk could be read by my other SE, and seemed to be working fine. But this SE flashed up the X every time I put it in. This behavior has never wavered--until last night, when I tried something different--something I never really expected to work.
Now that you know the background story, we're back in the present tense. (Well, this happened last night, so it's not actually present...you get the idea.)
I was told that to get the replacement hard drive to be recognized, I'd need Apple HD SC Setup. Unfortunately, it's not on the OS floppy that TheNixer sent me. But it was on the OS 7.6 CD that I got for my Centris 610. So here's what I did:
1) Booted up the Centris, and inserted my Mac OS 7.6 CD.
2) Pulled Apple HD SC Setup from that disk, copied it to the desktop.
3) Put in my Mac OS 6.0.8 floppy disk sent to me by TheNixer.
4) Pulled the Installer, System, Finder, and various Control Panels from that disk, copied it to the desktop.
5) Put in a brand-new Verbatim 800k disk, attempted to fit Mac OS 6.0.8 and Apple HD SC Setup onto that disk. (Yup--my goal was to make a new system disk--only with the addition of Apple HD SC Setup)
6) Not enough room, I was forced to downsize the System by deleting the Control Panels. I was left with the System, Installer, Finder, and Apple HD SC Setup to copy to the disk.
7) All files then copied successfully to my disk.
8. I was highly doubtful that anything would happen--after all, if the SE didn't recognize TheNixer's disk, why would it recognize mine, which was simply a copy? And I had downsized the files a lot, so again, I was highly doubtful.
9) Booted up the malfunctioning SE. I get the flashing question mark.
10) I inserted my improvised System Disk.
11) HAPPY MAC!!!!
12) DESKTOP SCREEN!!!
13) Dialog box: my disk needs minor repairs. Would I like to repair the disk?
14) My mistake: I clicked Yes.
15) Ran downstairs to report my success to mom and dad.
16) Upon my return upstairs, I see the disk - ejected - and the flashing question mark.
17) Every time I reinserted the disk, I get a Happy Mac, but then the disk ejects and the Happy Mac turns into the flashing question mark.
18. It also now displays this same behavior with TheNixer's disk: Happy Mac, then ejection and flashing question mark.
Today I will try again. And I need your help. I need to find a way to fit the full system contents of TheNixer's disk and Apple HD SC Setup onto one 800k disk. Is this doable?
If not, I'll just try to get ahold of 1mb floppy disks. Is it true that 800k drives read 1mb disks? TheNixer's system disks are all 1mb, so obviously I guess that it is possible.
So, which is easier: finding a way to compress all those files onto an 800k disk, or getting a 1mb disk and putting them there?
-Apostrophe
