Hi. I have a Macintosh SE/30. It was working great. I have an external Syquest EZ drive attached. I was seeing the Macintosh Hard Drive icon and the icon for the external drive on the desktop. The external has everything as a backup, even the Macintosh hard drive. I have turned it on and off many times. Works great! Now, just the blinking ? disk icon. How can I fix this? Can I somehow bypass this on startup and boot from the external? One time I got the welcome to Macintosh screen, and the syquest loading icon and then froze. Any help would be appreciated. Would a set of system 3.5" disks fix this? Anyone have a set they can send?
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Macintosh SE/30 blinking disk at startup
- Thread starter CP482
- Start date
LaPorta
Well-known member
Hard to say what the issue is without getting it to start up in some fashion. Have any of the SCSI settings changed? If the internal SCSI disk is an original disk, its fair to assume it may have given up after 30+ years. It is always good to have some floppy-based startup disk - is your floppy drive in good working order? Do you not have any startup floppies?
Have any of the SCSI settings changed? I am not sure what you mean, but I do not think I managed to change anything. There is a button- I do not know what it is/does. It is at the top of the keyboard, next to the keyboard plug connection. It has aa arrow pointing left, but it is not the delete button. I had cleaned there, but it also restarted after cleaning. If the internal SCSI disk is an original disk, its fair to assume it may have given up after 30+ years. Everything is original, but it was working an hour ago. The floppy drive is working. I reformatted a floppy I had and copied a MacPaint file to it. But, I do not have the program disks. Is there a way to bypass the internal and boot off the external?
LaPorta
Well-known member
If it was unable to locate an internal drive at ID=0, then it would proceed up the SCSI chain to find a drive. I’m guessing your external is not set up with a proper system folder (even if one is there, it is not “blessed”). You likely will need a startup floppy. Do you have any other means of making one?
No, I was looking on Ebay to buy some. I was trying option command O to bypass the internal, but it did not work. Thanks.
Phipli
Well-known member
LaPorta
Well-known member
There’s no need to “bypass” the internal unless there is a system folder on an intact drive the machine can find. If it can’t even find the internal drive, it automatically searches the rest of the SCSI bus. So, unless something is wrong with the entire bus, you just don’t have a bootable system folder on your external device.
Sorry, yes. That did not work.
The Macintosh SE/30 just started working again! I have no idea why, but everything is working great. I would like a backup startup, for assurance. I tried to copy system 7 onto the floppy, but the system 7 is too large of a file. Is there a startup file hiding somewhere on the drive for me to copy? If not, I would love one. Can you send me one? How much? I am in Maryland.
LaPorta
Well-known member
System 6 is small, or a disk tools image. Do you have access to your backup drive now? You can see if it has a “blessed” system folder - meaning it has the system icon on it to designate a legitimate system folder.
Long term: that HD is going to die. It’s not if but when. Look into a SCSI2SD or BlueSCSI or equivalent.
Long term: that HD is going to die. It’s not if but when. Look into a SCSI2SD or BlueSCSI or equivalent.
Phipli
Well-known member
No, they're just applications.
Thanks. Would anything on the computer work as a backup startup disk?
Phipli
Well-known member
The following is dangerous. Do not modify your existing, working, System Folder. Do all this work on a copy. Otherwise you might not be able to boot your computer.
Duplicate the System Folder, you don't want to damage the original, then delete everything other than the Finder, System, Extensions, and Control Panels out of the copy of the System Folder. Delete everything other than "Startup Disk" in the Control Panel folder in the copy, then delete everything other than the File Sharing Extension in the Extensions folder in the copy. Then double click the "System" file inside the copy System Folder, delete all the fonts and keyboards and anything else in there.
Copy this new super slim System Folder copy to your floppy disk. Does it have a picture of a Mac on the folder icon? If not, move the Finder out of the system folder, then move it back in again.
This might give you a system 7 disk small enough to fit on a disk. It might even boot your computer. This is all from memory, so it might not work.
Once you're happy, delete your copy System Folder from your hard disk.
Do not delete stuff from your original System Folder by accident.
Thanks! I will give it a try after making a copy.
Phipli
Well-known member
Make sure you don't restart before you remove the duplicate copy from the hard disk. Make sure that the System Folder on your hard disk has the little Mac picture on it. If it doesn't, move the Finder out and back in again. Really take care with all this.
Last edited:
LaPorta
Well-known member
Part off the issue there is you don't have a System Folder. All the System Folder's items are dumped into the main hard drive. Create an actual folder named "System Folder" on that external drive and dump all the contents of the System Folder on your main drive into it.
Edit: As Phipli said. Just make sure it is actually in a System Folder and not just dumped in the HD.
Edit: As Phipli said. Just make sure it is actually in a System Folder and not just dumped in the HD.
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