I recently dug my old Mac Plus out of the closet, and was hoping to copy the data off the hard drive in order to use it with a mac plus emulator on the PC (Vmac Mini). The data is from when I was a kid, and isn't of any real importance, probably just some old school reports, some game saves and a few other silly little things I made. I would like to try to recover it, but mostly out of curiosity.
Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped, and I basically have a few different problems at this point:
1) The first issue is that the hard drive is not spinning up. I opened the enclosure and discovered the hard drive was an ST251N and did some research. Apparently this drive model commonly suffered from "stiction" issues, which would prevent it from spinning up. Considering the drive hasn't been powered on in almost 20 years, I suspect that could very well be the problem. I've tried powering the drive from a molex connector on my PC to remove the possibiltiy that the enclosure was at all, and the bottom gets very hot, but the drive still does not spin up. Does this sound like "stiction" could be the issue, or more like something more serious, like the motor not working?
2) The second issue is that external hard drive encloser is from CMS. There are some dipswitches on the back that are presumably set up properly, but I really have no idea. I have no manual or anything to go by, and it's hard to even tell what model number it is. There are also two different connections for an SCSI cable on the back, neither of which are labeled, and I don't know which is the one I should connect to the Mac. I tried connecting it basically at random (chose the top port), but that ended up with rather "interesting" results (see next issue; could be entirely unrelated to what port I selected).
3) The third, and possibly most serious issue (depending on whether the HDD works or not), is that during the process of trying to get the hard drive running, I reached behind the Mac and pushed on the SCSI cable to make sure it was fully plugged in and making good contact. The only thing I did was push on the end of the cable, but this must have somehow caused a short because there was a crackling noise and large amounts of smoke poured out of the top of the computer. Amazingly the Plus still works (boots fine from a floppy), so the damage appears to have been isolated. But I have to assume there's a good chance that the external hard drive port has been burned out.
My main goal at this point is to try to get the data off of the drive. If I can somehow gain access to the data (dump it to a file?) and get it onto my PC, I should be able to access it via Vmac Mini). So, getting the hard drive working with the physical machine is only a secondary concern. Ultimately, if the data is gone, it's not the end of the world, so I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars trying to get it back, but I am curious enough to spend a little bit to try to get the drive working again.
The question is, what is the best way to proceed? It seems like the first step would be to see if I can get the hard drive to spin up at all. Should the ST251N spin up if connected only to a molex from my PC, or does it need to also have a cable connected? What is the best way to try to get it working? I've read that you can try to spin it clockwise, and also that you can try to smack it? Are those really the best options or is there a better way?
The second question is, if I manage to get the drive to spin up, what is the best way to access the data? Can I just get an SCSI adapter for my PC and gain access that way in order to dump the drive contents, or do I need to get it working with a physical Mac? I'd greatly appreciate any insight or suggestions you guys may have.
Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped, and I basically have a few different problems at this point:
1) The first issue is that the hard drive is not spinning up. I opened the enclosure and discovered the hard drive was an ST251N and did some research. Apparently this drive model commonly suffered from "stiction" issues, which would prevent it from spinning up. Considering the drive hasn't been powered on in almost 20 years, I suspect that could very well be the problem. I've tried powering the drive from a molex connector on my PC to remove the possibiltiy that the enclosure was at all, and the bottom gets very hot, but the drive still does not spin up. Does this sound like "stiction" could be the issue, or more like something more serious, like the motor not working?
2) The second issue is that external hard drive encloser is from CMS. There are some dipswitches on the back that are presumably set up properly, but I really have no idea. I have no manual or anything to go by, and it's hard to even tell what model number it is. There are also two different connections for an SCSI cable on the back, neither of which are labeled, and I don't know which is the one I should connect to the Mac. I tried connecting it basically at random (chose the top port), but that ended up with rather "interesting" results (see next issue; could be entirely unrelated to what port I selected).
3) The third, and possibly most serious issue (depending on whether the HDD works or not), is that during the process of trying to get the hard drive running, I reached behind the Mac and pushed on the SCSI cable to make sure it was fully plugged in and making good contact. The only thing I did was push on the end of the cable, but this must have somehow caused a short because there was a crackling noise and large amounts of smoke poured out of the top of the computer. Amazingly the Plus still works (boots fine from a floppy), so the damage appears to have been isolated. But I have to assume there's a good chance that the external hard drive port has been burned out.
My main goal at this point is to try to get the data off of the drive. If I can somehow gain access to the data (dump it to a file?) and get it onto my PC, I should be able to access it via Vmac Mini). So, getting the hard drive working with the physical machine is only a secondary concern. Ultimately, if the data is gone, it's not the end of the world, so I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars trying to get it back, but I am curious enough to spend a little bit to try to get the drive working again.
The question is, what is the best way to proceed? It seems like the first step would be to see if I can get the hard drive to spin up at all. Should the ST251N spin up if connected only to a molex from my PC, or does it need to also have a cable connected? What is the best way to try to get it working? I've read that you can try to spin it clockwise, and also that you can try to smack it? Are those really the best options or is there a better way?
The second question is, if I manage to get the drive to spin up, what is the best way to access the data? Can I just get an SCSI adapter for my PC and gain access that way in order to dump the drive contents, or do I need to get it working with a physical Mac? I'd greatly appreciate any insight or suggestions you guys may have.
Last edited by a moderator: